One of the few pieces of advice that my Father gave me was that “Everyone has a story, and all stories are worth hearing, even if they do not go along with what you want to hear.”

I am stubborn, and I may get my back up when you tell me something that I am not happy with, but I will listen. And my mother always told me to never disrespect those older and/or wiser than myself… and to date (with the exception of a few times, through the natural course of growing up and testing my boundaries) I have done so.

I also had an important mentor in my young adult life. A gentlemen named Major James F. Baier (USMC Retired), served 4 tours in Vietnam (as a “Hughie” pilot both Med-Evac and Gunship runs), and a few other places I cannot recall. He was what they call a “Mustang”, I am sure you have heard the term before. This was a person who personified Gunny Highway (Heartbreak Ridge) as the “Eating Constatina Wire and Pissing Napalm” Marine. Once this guy learned that I signed up on the delayed entry program at 16, he did not give me one moment of rest.

No… Don’t take back anything you said. Sometimes the best way we learn or get a better understanding of things is to challenge or be challenged on what you think you know. To just take everything that we know at the gospel, is not learning, it is “getting by.”

Not to mention the fact that if everyone agrees with you, life gets awful damn boring, real fast.

I look forward to seeing you on the site from time to time.