There are certain events in the news that stick with you long after you see them. In the middle of all the political bickering about the war in Iraq, there are soldiers on the ground risking their lives for a reason. I can’t tell you what channel or who the reporter was, but I can tell you what the soldier said. He said that it is not enough to say that you support the troops, they have “to let us finish our mission.”

This statement brought to my mind thoughts about how all of these unsung heroes would feel if their battle ended without feeling that they had accomplished their mission. They have watched their friends die. Some have been injured and returned to battle. Some have been injured and sent home to recover. These heroes are not worried about congress’s budgets or arbitrary dates. The men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan want to complete their mission, so that when they come home, they can tell their mothers and spouses and kids, this is why I fought in this war. This is what I accomplished.

The US Congress and the President need to set a final mission for our troops and let them finish it.

This mission is on my mind because we are approaching the Memorial Day holiday. Many of us will celebrate this weekend as the unofficial start of summer, but thousands of families will be remembering the loss of a hero.

I heard on the Clark Howard radio show about a way that we can remember our troops this Memorial Day weekend. There is a web site called heromiles.org where you can donate your extra frequent flier miles for the benefit of injured service members and their families. During this Memorial Day weekend, participating airlines will match your donation mile for mile, in effect doubling your contribution to Operation Hero Miles. I will be taking advantage of this opportunity to contribute to the cause.

While browsing through the many blogs in the world, I have run across a blog phenomenon called memes. These memes appear to be blog themes for posts such as Thursday Thirteen . I have been tossing around the idea of a Friday Photos meme for Delmarva bloggers. FOB over at Salisbury Times Blog Spot seems to think that photos would add some interest to our local blogs. Monoblogue graces us with a weekly Shorebirds photo, and Salisbury News shows us that he is an avid photographer. Some of the best photos can be found at Save the Junin Grebe . Other local blogs lack any color whatsoever. I know that I will have to make a concerted effort to add some color to ShoreThings. Any thoughts?

I am a big golf fan, and one of the highlights of the PGA season is The Masters. The Daily Times seems to rely quite heavily on news service stories, so they only get partial blame for this AP photo accompanying a piece written by Eddie Pells of the Associated Press. I was troubled enough by this caption to write about it here two weeks after it appeared. The problem with this caption is that Tiger Woods is not black. He is at least biracial. His mother is Thai, and his father was African American. The article even admits in the third sentence from the end that Tiger is multiracial. Tiger Woods is the best golfer that has ever played the game. Not the best black golfer or the best golfer of color, simply the best. Tiger can serve as a role model to African Americans without being restricted to any certain race. He has described himself as a person of the world. I hope that he serves as a role model to children of all races. I have no idea how Tiger feels when he sees himself described by the media to fit the author’s purpose. The fact is that there were no black golfers at The Masters this year. There was at least one golfer who can claim black heritage, and there were several players of color. I was lucky enough to see Tiger play in and win his first Masters, and what I saw was the best player who ever picked up a club.

Changes aren’t permanent, but change is.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.
Lynn Hall, Where Have All the Tigers Gone?, 1989

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

The internet is an amazing thing. From my computer to the world.