Old School Software Manuals

I was taking a trip down memory lane the other night and ran across some old computer game manuals.  Dark Forces, SimCity 2000, Sim City 3000/Unlimited, Dark Reign, Baldur's Gate, Starcraft.  These are the games that were a cause of lowered grades and increased body fat.  Only one did I ever beat (Dark Forces), but they were all a whole lot of fun.  Dark Reign was nigh well impossible- I couldn't get past level 6 (of 12) and Dustin, my strategic-genius friend couldn't get past level 8.  I never had the patience to beat Baldur's Gate (a 200+ hour feat), despite several attempts throughout the years.  You can't really 'beat' SimCity, but I did make a couple awesome cities (LA I remember particularly well...).  I got within two levels of beating Starcraft, but Protoss level 8 was my undoing (I guess that's three levels- 8, 9, and 10).  

Aside from my skill (or lack thereof), another thing struck me while thumbing through these old manuals.  They were thick, substantial, and definitely not an afterthought.  They all have several aspects that set them apart from modern manuals.  They are relatively physically large, and contain mountains of reference material, a touch of personality, and some (substantial) sort of 'added-value'- a backstory or real-world tie-ins.  Well-written manuals give you a sense of pride and ownership in the game you are about to play.  Oh how I long for the days of the substantial, thought-out manual!  It tells you that this game is someone's baby, someone's life-long quest, and that you now have the privilege and pleasure of playing it. 

One of the most visible indications of an old-school manual is it's size.  They are large- both in terms of dimensions and in terms of number of pages.  The SimCity 2000 manual is 140 pages long, all relatively full.  Perhaps the most jam-packed manual I know of is the original Civilization 2 manual.  I don't have my original, but a pdf copy is just a google search away.  It's over 200 pages filled to the brim with strategies, references, instruction, and historical vignettes.  Not only did the game ship with the manual, but with a terrain/technology/unit poster (we're talking serious tack-on-wall size here) that helped you figure out how to get from Archery to Nuclear Fusion, what terrain yielded the best production, and just how bad your howitzer was going to blow away those defending musketeers.  The SimCity 3000 Unlimited manual is over 200 pages long, with information on the game, the included Building Architect Tool, and the Scenario Editor.  All three of these manuals measure ~7 inches by ~8.5 inches.  Yeah, I know, Save The Trees and all that, but manuals this size indicate that this is a game someone (or more likely a whole lot of someones) has put a lot of time and effort into.  They whet your appetite to get into the game and play it to death.

  The large amounts of reference material contained in these old manuals is another differentiator from their modern counterparts.  The SimCity manuals describe in detail every button, every tool, and every window.  Need to know what that weird hat-looking button does?  Look it up, it's there in the manual.  Dark Reign's manual included unit/building descriptions along with several tables indicating each units speed, armor, attack values against various targets, strengths, weaknesses, etc.  Starcraft gives you similar data, with detailed unit/building descriptions and a seperate fold-out chart with each race's tech tree- what you had to build to get each unit.  Civilization 2 is a complicated game, and the manual explains just about everything in adequate detail.  It even includes a screen-by-screen reference guide.  I've already discussed the extras that you get along with the manual that are chocked full of info.  Dark Forces is perhaps the laggard here, but in it's defense it's not a very complicated game- you've got 10 weapons, a dozen enemies, and limited controls.  Providing reference material is one of the main reasons to have a manual, and the manuals of yester-year perform this duty admirably.

One of my favorite manuals (I think I need help- I have favorite computer manuals!) is the SimCity 2000 manual because of it's great sense of personality and humor.  The writers accept the fact that the game isn't 100% perfect, and let you know this with a subtle humor, a wink of the eye if you will, that makes accepting the games short comings manageable.  For example, when explaining about power plants and why the earliest starting date is 1900, it says "Yes, cities existed before electricity, but not in SimCity 2000.  Sims are electronic life-forms and can't exist without it."  This subtle nod of the head to the limitations of the game, specifically that of being a simulation of 'modern' cities without the complexity or depth of cities back to the beginning like Civ 2, makes it a whole lot easier to accept.  The manual (and those of the sequels) also show's it's personality in it's manner of addressing the reader.  The writers talk to you as if you were a new mayor, complete with  a great sense of humor.  The SimCity 4 manual, in describing Disasters, has this advice: "Joe Bob Sim been a little whiny lately?  Aim a lightning bolt at his garage.  Who said civic leaders had to be polite?"  Dark Reign's manual has a slightly darker sense of humor.  It describes a unit that captures enemy soldiers and turns them into suicide bombers to your cause, "with a high-powered explosive strapped to [their] back.  Enjoy."  Humor plus personality equals a great experience (take note, Novell!).

The last feature I'd like to ruminate on is the thing that elevates games from 'good' to 'great.'  It's the reason Half-Life was so addictive.  It's one of the reasons Starcraft is still being actively played over 10 years after it came out.  Yep, I'm talking about a storyline or plot, something sadly lacking in today's compost heap of MMORPG's and FPS's.  Both Dark Reign and Starcraft provide back stories- why you're fighting the battles, why certain units have certain attributtes, and why certain civilizations do things differently.  Reading through the Dark Reign backstory, you can't help but have sympathy for the Freedom Gaurd in their fight against the maniacally dictatorial Imperium (it does smack of Star Wars, however).  It helps you understand just why they have Martyr units that are willing and eager to charge the enemy with a plasma bomb on their back.  Starcraft's manual gives you a great history of the conflict between Terran, Zerg, and Protoss that leaves you with great empathy for the rebellious Jim Raynor or the proud yet fallen Protoss at the end of the game.  It provides a sense of "what's going to happen next?" that propels you through the game.  Dark Forces' manual gives you all it's information in the form of a series of messages between two of the game's characters, similar to the original X-Wing manuals.  It really helps to draw you into the game.

Sci-fi strategy game manuals aren't the only to benefit from back stories.  The SimCity 2000 manual includes vignettes from a real city architect on real-world strategies and histories.  At the end of the manual they includes several paintings, photographs, and poems about cities.  Does any of this have anything to do with the gameplay?  No, but it gives you a sense that you are part of something much bigger than a computer game.  The Civilization 2 manual provides similar vignettes that explain why the implemented certain concepts, what they're based on, etc.  At the end of the manual there is a 'Developer's Notes' section, with a few words (5 pages worth) from the developers.  You've heard the old phrase "Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes?"  Well, this is just that.  Reading about a developer's struggles and successes gives you a sympathy for what they've done and a willingness to accept their shortcomings (after reading a book about the developers of Windows 95 I had my whole outlook on Windows changed and was very sympathetic to their cause!).  These little add-ons, not added as mere afterthoughts but as quality additions, really help 'sell' the reality of the game to the player.

Some may say that in this day of game review websites, walk-throughs, FAQs, and Google that manuals are not needed anymore.  While a walkthrough may make a game easier, it never makes it more enjoyable.  Nothing beats the feel of paper in your hand.  I don't mean to say that ALL old manuals are good and ALL new manuals are bad.  The SimCity 4 manual packs 92 pages of information into a booklet that fits inside a DVD case.  However, a well-written manual does more than a Google search can ever do- it tells you that this game is someone's baby, someone's life-long quest, and that you now have the privilege and pleasure of playing it.  Few and far between are the games that take the time to make a good manual.  So Game On, and I'll see you in the manual.

Case Senstivity Sux0rs!

A warning to all you Mac people out there:  Do NOT format your drives using the 'Mac OSX Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)' option!  Case sensitivity can wreck havok with your software.  So far I've identified three programs that have given me grief because of the case sensitivity: Epson Scan, Starcraft, and Adobe Dreamweaver (30-day trial).  With Starcraft I was able to rename a single file to lower case to get it to work (lost all the maps, but it wasn't a huge deal).  However, Dreamweaver refuses to install (a major bummer after a 600MB download).  

The Epson scan utility has caused the biggest headache.  It will install, and you can access the scanner via TWAIN (which means you can use the built-in app 'Image Grabber' to do basic scanning) but the Epson Scan program will not work!  The annoying thing is that it doesn't give you a reason for failure.  It says 'Epson Scan' in the top left corner of the screen, but then immediately closes, not showing any windows or anything.  It's taken me over 6 months to figure out this is the problem.  It wasn't until I stumbled across this page (search for 'case sensitive' and you'll find the entry, about 1/5 the way down the page) that I realized my problem is probably with the case sensitive format!  I tried renaming different parts of the .app package to lowercase, but that just caused it to say 'This program will not run on this version of OSX' or something like that.  So, I've decided to do a full backup, then create an image of my hard drive, use Disk Utility to reformat my hard drive, and restore the old image.  The full backup is incase I can't restore the old image- boy I hope it works.  I don't want to have to reinstall everything!  That would be a major pain in the gluteous maximus.  I'll get back to you in a couple hours/days to let you know how it went.

My Mission, part 2

My next post has to do with my second area, Miami, Oklahoma.

The first thing you learn about Miami upon arrival there is that it's not pronounced like Miami, Florida.  It's "My-am-uh"- it's how the Miami Indians pronounce it and how the town in Florida would be pronounced if the Indians still lived there.  The town's biggest claims to fame are Route 66 and the Coleman Theater.  The town has some of the longest stretches of the original Route 66 nearby, along with some famous landmarks.  The Coleman theater is a 1920's movie palace that was built by local mining magnate (man, I can't remember his first name!) Coleman.  According to Larry Irwin, one of the tour guides there, it is haunted, but I believe that about as much as I beleive we faked the whole darn Apollo program (No, the moon landing was not faked!).  Larry's a nice guy who, despite not being a Mormon or accepting the Mormon doctrine, is great friends with the missionaries.  He'd always take us out to eat at Hungry Henry's or some other place.

My first companion in Miami was Elder Hochstrasser (Hockanstrasser?  Schlotzstrasser?  Hochenschlasser?-- as Larry would call him).  He'd been out a little more than a year (I think- I know he didn't hit his year mark with me) and was worlds different from Elders Davis or Bailey.  He was a little more... lax on the discipline than either of them.  While there I got the opportunity to witness the baptism of MG, an awesome guy who'd moved from Kenya 5 or 6 years previous, and Patrick, a pretty amazing teenager.  Other than those two, however, we never had a whole lot of success in the missionary work there.  About three weeks before I left we were introduced to a young lady named Kasha.  She was actively searching out God's will, and one of the most awesome members from our ward there introduced her to the church.  I don't know if she ever got baptized.  

So, about the ward.  Just like Lebanon, Miami is a small town of ~13,000 with several smaller outlying communities.  The Bishop again lived about 30 minutes out of town, and there were only a handful of members from Miami proper.  I remember two families especially well.  The Gibsons were perhaps the best family we could have asked for at the time.  They were always willing to help, always willing to spread the gospel (Sister Gibson is the one who introduced Kasha), and a blast to be with.  Brother Gibson is the IT guy and head wrestling coach at the local high school.  He was in Elder Bednar's old stake and had nothing but good to say about him.  He was a great help to us and the city during the flood (more on that later).  They had 4 kids; 2 in college, one in high school, and another in elementary.  The Comptons were a younger family; Brother Compton taught music at North-Eastern Oklahoma A&M college (NEO), just down the street from our house (yes, the Elders in Miami have a house), and Sister Compton taught at the elementary school where their young son went to school.  They were always willing to help as well, and Brother Compton would often drive us to Neosho, MO when we had district meetings.

So, in Lebanon we had an ice storm.  In Miami, we had a flood.  Miami is bordered on the south-west by the mighty Neosho river, and the highly-polluted Tar creek runs through the east part of town and joins the Neosho on the southern edge of town.  Our house was a couple streets away from Tar creek, and NEO's practice field bordered it.  After a week of massive rains to our north, the Neosho rose to a really high level- I think it was 30 feet above normal when it crested on the 4th.  On Monday, July 2nd we'd had a zone outing in Joplin playing Ultimate Frisbee with the rest of the missionaries in the zone (during which I managed to tweak my ankle).  Elder Jackson (my second companion and a really great guy.  He just had two transfers left when he was assigned to Miami) and I arrived home to find a message on our answering machine from Larry asking if we had evacuated yet.  We were like "What?!"  We called him and he told us that the Neosho was going to flood big time.  After talking with city officials and others we determined that our house might get flooded, so we called Brother Gibson and asked if we could stay at his place.  He and his family were very generous in allowing us to stay there for two nights until the flood crested.  The water barely touched the property line of our house and it was never in danger of flooding.  

That week became an 'Ox in the mire' situation, especially Monday and Tuesday.  Brother Gibson, Elder Jackson, and I volunteered our services to anyone who needed help moving stuff out of their house or out of their basement (Miami had a few more basements than Lebanon, where I only saw one- at the Ritchell's).  Monday night we were out until 11:30 helping an old lady very close to the river get practically everything out of her house- including an old 1960's era fridge with a heavier-than-lead condenser.  By the end of that night I had a nasty sunburn from our Zone outing, a tweaked ankle exacerbated by all the heavy lifting.  Elder Jackson nearly fainted from exhaustion, and Brother Gibson was really pushing himself for a guy who'd had a health scare a month earlier.  We talked with our District Leader and President Seal and got permission to 'bend' some of the rules due to the emergency- we didn't really proselyte, we did (way) more than the recommended 4 hours of service/week, we didn't get in til late those first two or three days, etc.  We were also pretty bad at getting up on time- we were too exhausted.  I can't even remember how many different people we helped move stuff out of their houses that week.  

After the river crested and started to fall came the massive task of clean up.  One of the families in the ward lived in a low-laying area south of the Neosho, and the entire first floor of their house was flooded.  Luckily for them, their house was built with cement walls and floors, so we just had to scrub the house down rather than write it off.  One day I remember in particular.  We had recieved a call from the city to help somebody move some stuff out of their now-mostly-dry basement.  It turned out most of it was old desks and file cabinets from the 70's- lots of heavy steel desks.  We had to get them out via a steep, narrow staircase that had a nasty 90 degree corner halfway up.  We were all pretty tired after that, but then his neighbor asked us for some help.  He had 4 rolls of housing insulation in his unfinished basement that were now ruined and he had to get them to the street.  First we had to lift them 4 feet to a crawlspace, drag them 10 feet, then lift them up another foot and a half through a crawlspace entrance to the driveway.  Problem was, they were water logged.  They each probably weighed 400-600 pounds, and whenever you tried to put your arms under them you would get soaked and you risked tearing the paper covering the insulation.  We went in dry; when we came out, we were drenched head to toe.  There was not one dry part on our bodies.  After that we were really, really tired and called it a day (it was getting late anyway).  

One of the brothers in the ward, a member of the Stake High Council, happened to have the week off from work and got involved with the cleanup.  He called Salt Lake, and they sent out a bunch of clean up kits, a couple shop vacs and generators, and some hygiene kits.  It was cool to see this giant semi pull up to the First Christian Church (where the Red Cross had set up their shelter and were using as a base of operations) with the beehive on the side of the trailer and the words "Deseret Transportation" on the side.  The church sent another shipment a couple days later with more shop vacs, fans, generators, and cleaning kits.  The Red Cross offered water and hot meals to everyone who needed them.  It was neat to see all the different churches come together- we had Southern Baptists from other states come in to help, and we all worked side-by-side.  

We spent several days taking destroyed furniture and stuff out to the street from peoples homes; it was devastating to see all that so many people had lost.   One house was picked up off it's foundations and moved about a foot.  FEMA came in and brought some trailers for those who's homes were to be condemned.   There was a lot of nasty stuff in the water.  Remember Tar Creek?  Yeah, it's a SuperFund site.  A total of around 600 homes were affected, and the last estimate I heard before I left was that 300 would be condemned.  Half the buildings at NEO had rather severe water damage.  The municipal pool, where Sister Gibson and a couple others from the ward worked, was closed for the rest of the season and they said it would probably be closed for the next season (this upcoming summer of 2008).  One old, established store (Nott's Grocery) was pretty much wiped out of business, as was the city's newest fire station.  

The week following the flood week (ie, the week after the 4th of July) we tried to get back to normal, missionary-work wise.  That week I received the news that I would be transferred to the Indian Springs area in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (a suburb of Tulsa).  Elder Davis had served there, Elder Jackson had just come from there, and that same transfer Elder Hochstrasser would become the district leader of that district.  The following week was transfer week.  Starting Sunday (the 15th) I got rather sick- stomach pains and the associated nastiness.  I barely survived district meeting that week, spending most of it on the floor.  Wed I basically took a sick day; as the evening wore on, the pains began to become really, really bad.  After consulting with Sister Seal (who was in charge of missionary health) it was decided I'd better go to the hospital.  After giving me a blessing, Brother Gibson took me into the ER.  They put an IV in me and started a saline solution while they did some tests.  Fortunately, I just had some sort of bug and not a burst appendix, which would've been really bad news (as one of my friends is finding out first-hand this week).  I drained that first bag of saline solution in about 20 minutes, and that really helped me feel better.  After about 2 and a half hours I was back in (relatively) stable condition, so we went home.  Throughout it all Brother Gibson was a Godsend, a real father figure.  He's also the type who knows how to crack a joke at just the right time, so I'd be doubled over in pain but laughing at the same time.  I don't know what I'd have done those two weeks without the Gibsons.  

Luckily, by Friday (transfer day) my stomach had settled down and I didn't have to run to the bathroom every hour.  I say luckily because it was a three hour drive to Broken Arrow.  Thus started the last (and probably hardest) portion of my mission, which I'll write about another day.

My Mission, a short story

The next two posts are copies of posts I did on my old myspace account.  I thought I'd bring them here so they are more accessible.

    Lebanon, Missouri (pronounced "Leb-ah-nin Mi-ser-ah, say it fast) was my first area.  It's about halfway between between the Oklahoma border and St. Louis on I-44.  It's original name was Wyota, but back around the turn of the century one of the 'major players' in the city decided to rename it to Lebanon, the name of his hometown.  It's located in the heart of the Ozark "mountains" and is home to five boat factories (G3, Tracker, Sundancer, Lowe, and another that I forget) and one barrel factory.  It's a town of about 13,000 people and contains a good stretch of old Route 66.  There are a lot of farms/cattle ranches surrounding the town.  

    My first companion and trainer was Elder Davis, who is an awesome missionary.  I was very excited to see several small Lego sets on his desk .  We got along rather well and had a pretty good time.  When I got there a wonderful sister named Mary had just gotten baptized.  Her close friend Betty was investigating the church as well.  An awesome young man named Ryan was poised for baptism if he could just come to church the required five times.  During the two transfers (total of 3 months) that Elder Davis and I were together, Betty got baptized and Ryan dumped us.  The day that Ryan dropped us was a really hard one for Elder Davis.  Betty had big problems with depression, and it was amazing to see the change in her and her lifestyle that the gospel brought into her life!  She and Mary both will be strong sisters in the ward there.

    Another investigator we were working with there was named Shelly.  She was up for a baptismal interview the saturday after I got there, but she told us that she was on probation for an act committed a long time ago.  To get off probation, which our mission president (President Seal, more on him later) deemed nessecary to be baptized, she needed to pass the GED test.  We helped her with that, but due to many different cirucmstances she still had not passsed when I left Lebanon at the end of April.  We had many wonderful visits with Shelly, who is an amazing lady.  She has a son named Gage who is a riot to play with.  We were able to witness a true medical miracle with them.  Right before I left to come home, President Seal said that he was considering approving her baptism because of the great effort she has put forth to get off probation.  I hope to soon hear that she was baptized.

    So, while I was in Lebanon it was hit with the worst Ice storm in over 50 years.  Friday, January 12th, Elder Davis and I were working about 3 miles from our appartment.  We'd biked over there, then started tracting.  It had started raining so we went back to our bikes so that we could go visit some people.  We discovered that Elder Davis' brakes had literally frozen!  We thus decided to just walk home.  45 minutes later we got home, and we were both covered in ice.  Our coats were stiff with the stuff, and there was a couple millimeters covering our bikes.  The next morning we went outside, and it looked like a war zone.  There are a lot of trees in Lebanon, and many of them (or parts thereof) were on the ground.  Lebanon has overhead powerlines (as opposed to burried utilities) so about 60% of the city lost power from the ice storm.  It remained cold for about 3 weeks after that, with temps in the teens many times, and dropping to single digits every once and a while.  This doesn't include the wind chill, which probably dropped it below zero.  All in all, it was pretty fun.  We were lucky in our appartment to not lose power.  In march we were helping one of the members of the ward clean up some brush in his backyard, where I was exposed to Poison Ivy.  I had a rash on my arms for about 2 weeks, but it didn't get too bad.  On the last saturday of each transfer (OK, technically it's the second to last saturday, but it would be the last saturday in the area) President Seal and his assistants would call all the missionaries who were going to be transferred.  Elder Davis got a call from President Seal saying that he would be a Zone Leader in Fayetteville, AR.  He really flipped out- he didn't think he was ready.  He was scared, but since has mastered the art of leadership and has become a wonderful Zone Leader.  I won't be surprised if he becomes an Assistant to the President before he leaves.  

    My second companion was Elder Bailey, who would be going home the transfer after this one.  He was kinda different from Elder Davis.  While he was there we were able to help Monte to be baptized.  He's a really fun guy and would make a great scout leader.  He's very sincere and very spiritual.  He had a problem with coffee, but when we impressed to him that he couldn't be baptized til he stopped drinking coffee he said, "watch this!"  He got up, took his coffee pot, and dumped it down the drain.  Elder Bailey and I sat there kinda dumbfounded for a moment.  I was actually about to suggest that he do that, but he went ahead and did it himself!  He was to receive the Aaronic priesthood the Sunday after I left Lebanon.  

    We had a couple of other investigators there that haven't been baptized yet, as far as I know.  One was a seemingly golden investigator named John, who read everything and seemed to really feel the spirit.  He had given up his job to be able to come to church, and had left the place where he was staying when they said that he couldn't meet with us there anymore.  Then one day he just kinda disappeared.  We later got word that he was in Dallas at a truck driving school.  I don't know what's become of him.  Mike and Cheri were a couple we tracted into, but they had to take some time off when Cheri gave birth right after I left Lebanon, and I'm likewise unsure what's happened.  One wonderful old gentleman we were teaching was Lloyd.  He is an old, retired policeman who is in the twilight of his life.

    The ward in Lebanon was small but fun.  Brother Morter was the Ward Mission Leader for most of the time I was there.  He is a very spiritual man and it was a thrill to work with him.  While I was with Elder Bailey he was released and Brother Hobert Ruble (Roo-bell) was called to be the new WML.  It was great to work with him as he grew in his knowledge of the church.  Brother Ritchell was a constant support for us, offering meals and exchanges whenever he could.  I really look up to him.  The bishops family was really fun as well.  

    So, about President Seal.  President Seal was a dentist in Sandy before he got called to be a mission president.  He is an awesome man who really cares about his missionaries.  His mottos are 'Obedience with exactness" and "quick to observe."  He was big on obeying the rules, but didn't invent new rules or silly games (like running from door to door, like I've heard of other presidents requiring their missionaries to do).  He followed the white handbook and Preach My Gospel, as these are the words of the Lord through His chosen Apostles.  

4 July

It's been a week, but I thought I'd do a patriotic post in honor of the 4th of July holiday.  This particular date has a lot of meanings to me.  In 2005, we opened the Draper Inkley's on the 4th (note to self: don't work retail).  In 2006, I was getting to know a wonderful young woman at the Southtowne Inkley's.  In 2007, the Neosho River in Miami, OK, crested after flooding for three days.  That day, knowing the water wasn't rising any more, Elder Jackson and I returned to our house after spending two nights at the Gibsons.  And now, in 2008, I'm spending it in a most entertaining way: watching my nephews chase each other with sparklers!

Driving around yesterday, It was amazing to see all the flags out along the streets!  Not only were the 'standard' US flags out, but many people supplemented them with Army, Navy, Marine Corp, and POW/MIA flags (Sorry, Air Force, didn't see any of yours).  I downloaded a great CD yesterday from Amazon- "God Bless America' by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I know my patriotic/marching  music sometimes drives people nuts, and the same goes for my Tab Choir CD's, so I guess you're getting the best of both worlds!  They've got some great songs, though, like "This is the Army Mr. Jones," "Over There," and the services' songs (albeit with alterations to the lyrics): "The Caissons Go Rolling Along," "Anchors Aweigh," "The Marine Corp Hymn," and "The United States Air Force."  Great, great stuff.  

We owe a great debt to those who've gone before: if it weren't for those who risked everything in the Revolution, we'd still be a colony.  If it weren't for the soldiers in the War of 1812, we'd again be a British colony.  Without all those who gave their lives in the Civil War, we'd be a weak coalition of states, instead of a great Federal power (not to mention the 'freedom' of the colored people, which sometimes still needs defending).  Without all who gave their lives in foreign climes like France, Germany, Italy, and North Africa we would have been subject to the whims of a madman named Adolf Hitler.  Without the sacrifices in the Pacific our brothers in Hawaii, Alaska, and perhaps even the West Coast could have been subject to the savagery of the Japanese Army under the command of it's War Ministers (look at their record in China and Manchuria in the late 30's).  

The wars in Korea and Vietnam are still up for debate, but I think the soldiers still deserve recognition for their bravery- perhaps even more so, for their enemy wasn't the great oppressor aimed at the US but soldiers fighting for an ideology.  They stood and fought, even when they knew they'd never get a ticker-tape parade down Broadway (unless your name is Douglas MacArthur), even when they knew there were crowds who decried them for obeying the orders of their government.  To all you who fought: I salute you.  Do not be ashamed to have answered the call of your country, for obedience is the first law of heaven!  

To the troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, I give my heartfelt thanks.  You are men and women of my generation.  You are my brothers and sisters, and despite what spin the news tries to put on things, you are good people!  Your cause is just.  I sleep easier at night, knowing that because of your grand sacrifice we are safer here at home.  You are forever in our prayers.

Next time you see the flag, remember what it stands for.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."  Rights.  Freedoms.  Privileges.  Responsibilities.  Next time you see a flag, remember that this (dare I say?) holy symbol is used to drape the coffins of those who gave their life for you.  The flag stands tall, a symbol of our country.  Remember that for soldiers fighting in war, that flag represents home and freedom  Free speech is one of those Rights implied by the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the Constitution, but show some respect!  You want to disagree with the decisions of a certain man, blame him!  Do not destroy the symbol of this great God-given country!  To burn the flag is to burn yourself, for what is America?  Is America mortal politicians, fraught with mortal mistakes?  No!  It is the spirit within each of us that says, "Yes, we can create a 'more perfect Union!'" It is the spirit that says, "I will lay down my life so that my brothers and my sisters can be free!"  America is us!