We should all honor our veterans on November 11, 2012

Remembering my teenage war hero

 

By Chinta Strausberg

 

This year, Veterans Day falls on Sunday, November 11^th where the nation will honor 24.9 million U.S. veterans one of them my cousin, Milton Lee Olive, III, 18, the first African Americans to have received a Congressional Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.

While we recall what happened on November 11, 1918 when the cease-fire agreement was signed by the Allied powers with Germany at Rethondes, France bringing World war I to a much desired close and establishing Nov. 11, 1919 as Armistice Day in the U.S., I hope, it is my wish, that somehow on Nov. 11, 2012, President Barack Obama could sign a similar cease-fire accord for both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wouldn’t that be historic? But, history has already been made when on October 21, 2011, President Obama declared that the war was over in Iraq and most of the 40,000 U.S. troops should be home by the end of this year.

As of last year, both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have cost the U.S. citizens more than $1.3 trillion.

The war against Iraq was launched on March 19, 2003 by then President George W. Bush who claimed Iraq was hoarding weapons of mass destruction—an allegation that proved false. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein became a hunted man; however, after he was found in an underground bunker, he was executed in 2006. Still, the war continued, as did the millions of U.S. tax dollars.

What I will never forget is when President Bush’s said of Hussein, ‘Remember, this man tried to kill my dad.” His declaring a war on Iraq appeared to be a personal vendetta though he has denied that allegation.

While Bush claimed he inherited a recession and is leaving a recession in 2008, in reality President Bill Clinton left America with a budget surplus. Since 1958, the national debt increased each year including when President Ronald Reagan was in office. He reportedly left office with a national debt of $1 trillion.

I applaud President Barack Obama for cleaning up the financial and military messes he inherited and these financial nightmares can’t be wiped out in four-years. No president can correct the financial mismanagements of other presidents in such a short time and it ought not to be used as political fodder.

I salute all U.S. veterans and especially my cousin, whom we called Skipper, who on October 22, 1965 while on a search and destroy mission spotted a live grenade, grabbed the device, and placed it on his stomach allowing it to explode.

His act of bravery was the ultimate sacrifice and it saved the lives of four of his comrades who were immediately behind him. They were Jimmy B. Stanford, Sgt. Vince Yrineo, John Foster and Lionell Hubbard. 

The latter two, both African American, have since died and to my knowledge, Yrineo is in a nursing home in Washington State. I still talk to Capt. Stanford who said there isn’t a day that goes by that he does not thank God for Skipper’s saving him, but he still wonders why.

Over the years I have spoken and kept up with all of them and met Sgt. Yrineo when then Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn was in office. Quinn held a press conference honoring Skipper and one of the men he saved.

My uncle, Milton B. Olive II, Skipper’s dad, asked me many times to never let the world forget what his son did for him. The last plea he made to me was on the phone while I was at my Cousin Charlie Carter’s place of business. That call turned out to be a deathbed wish.  Uncle died in March of 1993 of cancer while I was on assignment covering an international crime summit in Jamaica.  My family kept the state of his health a secret from me, but I am a woman of my word especially to my family.

I honor and remember Skipper, a young man who was a breech baby and whose mother, Clara, died in childbirth. I honor and remember him for his being raised by my paternal grandparents, Jacob Augustus and Zelphia Wareagle Spencer, at their home, 6012 S. Loomis, purchased by Skipper’s dad. That was in the Englewood community when there was neighborhood pride that shined brightly and a time when parents ruled their children.

Today, I pray for the youth who were born much later than Skipper for many don’t have the maternal or paternal grandparents I was so blessed to have. Their “parents” are the street elements—the gangbangers who become their surrogate parents—“parents” who place guns in their hands and order them to kill another human being. Our Skipper, who died 16-days before his 16^th birthday, chose to die to save the lives of four of his comrades. He joined the Army to save America.

I pray today for our lost generation—youth who are going to jail faster than those who being born. I pray today for our drugged-crazed children who believe in the Code of Silence that only serves as cover for killers to murder over and over again.

I pray for the children who have been duped to believe they must step in the choose of their ancestors—their fathers who are either in prison or dead—men who foolishly claimed street corners as their turf to sell poison to our people.

I pray for our children who equate a gun with their manhood for they are as some activists say Kids Killing Kids the new KKK or “cowardly killers” as CeaseFire director Tio Hardiman calls them.

They are our lost generation, dropouts who are dropping into our bustling jail and prison industrial complex system. They are leaving a huge void in the black community and are fast becoming the invisible black men of this century.

I pray today especially for our boys whose mentors are killers and drug addicts, but there is hope.

I pray and thank God for the faith community that is stepping up ministers like my pastor, Saint Sabina’s Father Michael L. Pfleger who is no longer out here by himself calling and marching for peace in the neighborhoods.

I thank God for ministers like Pastor Ira Acree, Rev. Marshall Hatch on the West Side and Father Jose Landeverde for erasing the lines of geographical demarcation that have kept us so divided politically, religiously and economically, and their partnering with Father Pfleger and other black, white and Hispanic clergy. Their coalition includes Muslims and the Sikh communities that have recently become targets of hate groups. Four of their members were recently shot and six killed at their Wisconsin house of worship.

Today, they stand with this diverse group of clergy in calling for peace in the community and for a unified call for the reinstatement of the ban on assault weapons and passage by the Illinois General Assembly of HB 5831, which registers all guns. This “sleeping giant,” as Father Pfleger labeled the coalition, has awakened and each week takes to the streets to let the killers of our community know their anti-social behavior will no longer be tolerated.

When we all realize that we are in this all together, that will be the beginning of the first day of true transformation in our troubled and crime-riddled communities.

Happy Veterans Day to all men and women who served and are serving our nation in a big way.

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.