{"id":298,"date":"2004-01-06T06:40:57","date_gmt":"2004-01-06T06:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:08:27","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:08:27","slug":"the_real_spirit_of_america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"The Real Spirit of America"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been corresponding with Jim Hake<\/a>, a local Los Angeles fella, who approached Joe about a plan he had to help the Marines perform the nation-building part of their role in Iraq by providing them with swag – toys and school supplies for children and basic medical supplies for Iraqi physicians.<\/p>\n

He’s pulled it together (brilliantly), and now is ready to accept donations. You can donate cash here<\/a> , or go here<\/a> to see what kind of goods are being sought and how to get them to him. Time is of the essence, as he is working with the 1st Marine Division – who were in Baghdad and who are about to redeploy back to Iraq. The first container leaves in two weeks.<\/p>\n

Many of us are safe at home, affected by the events in Iraq, and passionate in our feelings – one way or the other – about them. Here’s a chance to do some concrete good. For myself, I use the ‘good dinner’ metric in deciding how much to give; what does a good dinner out with Tenacious G cost me? For some, a good dinner out is Carl’s, as opposed to Mickey D’s. For some it’s Ginza Sushi-Ko (a wildly expensive<\/a> sushi restaurant here in Los Angeles). <\/p>\n

Obviously, I see this as a Good Thing, and for those of us in favor of the war – even for those opposed, who I am sure want the Iraqis to get a break, and for our troops to be able to do something other than ‘killing people and blowing shit up<\/i>,’ as my Ranger friends put it.<\/p>\n

I love this quote from the Maj. General Jim Mattis, the commander of the 1st Marine Division:<\/p>\n

“While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam’s oppression.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems to me that this could be the motto we apply to many of our more militant interactions abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been corresponding with Jim Hake, a local Los Angeles fella, who approached Joe about a plan he had to help the Marines perform the nation-building part of their role in Iraq by providing them with swag – toys and school supplies for children and basic medical supplies for Iraqi physicians. He’s pulled it together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}