Hillary’s About ME; This Dad Was About US

This morning I posted What's Important For Secretary Clinton.

The short of it: Reuters reported Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went on a Turkish TV interview program and talked, not about policy issues, but about herself. Her life, her loves, etc.

Why? Hillary believes if Turks and others in the world can just know her, that will be wonderful for the US.

With Hillary - as with her husband - it’s always about ME.

I suggested the Reuters story could've been headlined: HILLARY DOES AN OPRAH.

An Anon commenting on my post linked to a 2006 Sippican Cottege post - My Dad Asks For Nothing – which now includes a brief update from Mar. 3, 2009.

My Father Asks For Nothing began - - -

My father asks me for nothing, really. Every three months or so, I take him to his doctor, who pokes about him wondering what keeps him animated, and that's about it. He's grown frail, and has discovered the joys of "Not Going."

It takes a lot to get him to leave the comfort and safety of his house. I was really surprised when he called me on Saturday, because he asked me to take him somewhere.

My father was a ball gunner on a B-24J Liberator bomber in the Pacific during WW2.

He rarely spoke about that. My father and his confreres considered themselves part of a thing greater than the sum of their parts in it --or so it seems to me -- and more or less did what was expected of them as a sort of unpleasant chore, kept themselves safe as much as was practicable, amused themselves when possible, and got back to being regular people as soon as they could.

As far as how practicable it was to keep safe hanging below a plane filled with four hundred pound bombs with nothing but the ocean beneath you to bore you and Japanese Zeros shooting at you to keep you interested in the trip, you can draw your own conclusions.

My father said that the last B-24 in flying condition was going to be at a little air show nearby, and he wanted to go see it. Would I take him?

As I said, my father is very frail. His heart is big but not useful. His mind is sharp but not overused now. It takes quite a bit of effort for him to get down the hall and into a car. And there was nothing I could do to keep him from trying to climb in that plane when we got there.

I didn't try, actually; I just was sort of amazed, and wondered how I could help him. You entered the plane … (continued here)