Dishonorable Mention

I couldn’t mention these veterans on Veterans’ Day with those that hold a place of honor. They have taken the lives of fellow vets and civilians and have paid the consequences with their own lives. John Allen Muhammad/John Williams, The DC Killer, was recently executed the day before Veterans’ Day by lethal injection. Major Nidal Malik Hasan is still in the hospital after murdering fellow soldiers and civilians. He committed this horrific crime at Ft. Hood, Texas. He was a psychiatrist! Both of these men are Muslims. I’m not stereotyping or giving an opinion, just facts. I’m sure that Muslims in the military are concerned how their fellow soldiers will wonder if they have their back in battle. Howard Unruh, a WWII veteran, died at 88 in a prison hospital. He committed his crime in Camden, NJ, in 1949. Let’s not forget Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City, in 1995. He, too, was executed in 2001. I had the opportunity to visit that hallowed site this year in 2009. It is so surreal. Just walking on that battlefield and scanning the area, created in my mind scenes that are too intense to describe. No different than the ones that the innocents went through. There are many other veterans that have gone a dishonorable way. Whatever happened to these men and others that caused them to take the low road, we will never know. Many of these people have gone through some type of pressure, whether in childhood, battle or whatever, that they couldn’t handle it. Whatever it was, I could not mention them on the same day as being honorable with those that sincerely deserves it. I’m not a prophet so I don’t know what will happen the next minute. I do know that I can’t spend my time worrying about it.