Today I heard Harry Reid say one too many times that they were "Speaking for the American people"!  I finally lost it.  The following went to all of his offices, and to all of the newspapers in the state of Nevada for which I could a website:

Mr. Reid, you DO NOT speak for the American people!  How dare you profess to do so!  We did not elect you liberal lefty Democrats, we elected reasonable Democrats who professed a more conservative ideology than their RINO opponents!  You do NOT have a mandate.  You do NOT speak for most Americans.

Americans are NOT losers.  We do not like to lose, and we have NOT lost in Iraq.  Do some research, Mr. Reid.  Learn about the Awakening Councils being formed in Iraq.  Learn about the turn around in the Sunni areas of Iraq.  Al Qaeda has proclaimed Iraq the center of their fight against America.  If you won’t pay attention to me, listen to what Al Qaeda themselves have said. 

I refuse to lower myself to the threatening and belligerent behavior and language of people of your ilk, i.e., your far left supporters, so I won’t call you any of the names I’ve called you in the privacy of my home each and every time you purport to speak for Americans.  Instead, I will ask you to educate yourself and stop using the lives of our heroes, who are fighting to defeat Islamofacists in Iraq so they won’t come here to America, to further your political power plays. 

Yes, it was in bold.  Yes, I refused to call him "senator" or "Mr. Speaker", or any other title that would convey that I believed he deserved anything more than scorn.  Do I feel better?  You bet I do!

Having mentioned those heroes, I thought I would share a couple of stories about them in San Antonio.  A dear friend of mine shared this story with me;

"My husband and I were at the Spurs Playoff Game on Wednesday night.  The Spurs were playing the Denver Nuggets, and the Nuggets were up one game in the series.  This game was a "must win" for the Spurs.  Our season ticket seats are excellent seats at center court, and folks are always wandering down into our section from the upper balconies wanting to find potentially unused seats that they can take advantage of.  So, as normal, right after half-time, there were a couple of guys who asked about empty seats right in front of us.  The couple sitting in the adjacent seats told them, as normal, that the seats were being used and the folks would be right back.  What was NOT normal, was that these guys were both badly scarred, burned, and one of them still had a gauze wrap on one arm and hand.  And, they both had on very loose fitting clothing.  They were leaving our section when they were stopped by one of our fellow season ticket holders as he was returning to his seat.  They shook hands and talked for a while.  When he got back to his seat, he said that they were two soldiers he had met at BAMC.  They had returned from Iraq when both had been hit by IUDs.  The season ticket holder who was sitting behind us, immediately got up, found the two soldiers, and brought them back to our section.  He informed them that they could sit in his two seats for the rest of the game.  He thanked them for what all they have done, and will continue to do as soldiers for all of us.  The soldiers yelled and cheered along with the rest of us, and I think they were the extra help that the Spurs needed to win the game, which they did!"

I know for a fact that this sort of thing happens every day, many times over, wherever these heroes can be found.

I was speaking to a therapist from the Center for the Intrepid today.  He told me that those wondrous prosthetic inventions are what they call "running feet" make all the difference in the world to our heroes.  I related to him a conversation I had this weekend with one of our Fisher House residents.  He had seen some guys work out with these wonders, and said he was amazed at how they were running football sprints, and doing side over side movements football players have to practice. This soldier had been special forces for 10 years, but did not get injured until he was in the Guard, and deployed to Iraq.  His vehicle was hit by an IED.  Half jokingly, half seriously, he said, "why didn't they cut my legs off, so I could have some of those!?!" 

This same soldier & his wife were telling me that they went to the Riverwalk recently.  They went into an Irish pub I'd told them about, and their waitress asked if he was using the cane due to an injury in Iraq.  He of course answered yes.  She shared her information with the patrons, and when she served their margaritas, informed them that they'd been paid for...and on and on it went, margaritas were sent over.  His wife told me she finally had to call a halt, or she'd not be able to drive back to the Fisher House! 

There is not a day I spend at Fisher House that these guys don't humble and amaze me. 

Oh, and by the way, my local paper just called me to ask if they could publish the above addressed to Mr. Reid.  You know what my answer was, don't you?