I got the call from Mrs. Old One: "We're having tri-tip slice steaks tonight...and your father wants to talk to you."
Well, I said, it's been a while since Labor Day and the talk fo the Chinese Bankers and our Republican 44th President, which I'll relate later...I wonder what caught his attention this time.
Little did I realize that The Old One had chanced upon a bit of history, and a reason for the Democratic Party to grow a rather large and obvious pair.
Usually, we banter back and forth before we talk, but today was...different. The Old One was in a crusade mode, which can range from right-wing lunatic to left-wing lunatic, and serves mostly to vent his anger and frustration. But today was quite different, with a fire in his eye and in his belly, I realized that he had watched the coverage of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker.
"Those cock-sucking bastards! Those rotten mother-fuckers!" The Old One spoke, drawing a vicious and definite warning glance from Mrs. Old One. Cursing is not welcome in her home, especially during her views of "The L Word" on HBO.
I presumed that he was speaking of the good General and Ambassador.
"So," I ventured, "You didn't buy their 'Happyland Tale' of how everything is buttery cream and perfectly ripe cherries in Iraq? Or how we're going to withdraw any troops through Iran instead of straight home?"
"No, you moron! I'm talking about the shit-eating Democrats! And they're eating Republican shit while they're at it! The same asshole Republicans who were pissing on Bush are now oh-so-innocent and quiet, and the Goddamn Democrats are letting them get away with it by eating their shit!"
It's been a while since The Old One vented like this; even Mrs. Old One was taken aback, goggling at his vehemence. The silence hangs in the air like the grease from the cooking steaks.
Ooo...kay...let's take it from the top...again. The Old One is mad because the Democrats...did something?
"No, Goddammit! They sit through all this crap, this pack of lies, the screwed up graphs that mean nothing, all this bullshit...and then whine that there is nothing that they can do because the Republicans won't vote with them!"
I confess that I was more interested in the liturgy of "Bush-wa" that was being spewed forth to the committees, but I had not seen any of the after-speech interviews. However, I was now tracking on his comments in a better context than before.
"Yeah, one of these idiot Democrats came on and said that while they really want to do something about this, they don't have the votes to stop the President from doing whatever the Hell he wants. What a bunch of crap!"
Well, I point out, that's mostly true. Without the Republicans at this point, the Democrats can't override the President's veto, so they've chosen the path of "not doing anything" rather than attempt a Pyrrhic victory in hopes of using the subpoena power in October.
Or November.
Maybe. If things go well. Somehow, somewhere. When the moon is full.
"Then the Democrats needs to understand something...something I learned from Nakamura back when we worked together, something that he learned coming out of the camps to serve the same country that made him a prisoner for just being Japanese....'Go For Broke'."
Nakamura was The Old One's working partner for many years, and although Nisei, had an absolute hatred of shrimp in any form. He had acquired his distaste while interned in the early part of World War II, forced to move from California to Lousiana, then Oklahoma, then Arkansas...and eating what seemed to him to be nothing but shrimp and white bread all along the way.
Nakamura (obviously, not his real name) lied about his age so he could get on work details and earn extra food for his family with his father; but all the extra food seemed to be just more shrimp every day that he worked hard. In the end, however, he lost his sister and one of his younger brothers to pneumonia, caught from the chill winds blowing through the holes in the tarpaper walls of his barracks on the cold plains of America.
Despite this treatment and suffering, Nakamura still believed.
When he was able, he joined the US Army to serve in the 100th Infantry Batallion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team; he was one of the survivors of the battle to rescue the "Lost Batallion" in 1944...a unit comprised of the former Texas National Guard.
Nakamura had pushed forward and survived because of one simple philosophy, which he found and embraced when the 442nd took it as its own:
"Go For Broke".
The Old One's face was terrifyingly calm when he brought all of this up.
"I remember that wrinkled old Nip face", he said quietly. "All of the suffering he went through, what happened in the war, and how he was treated when he came home...Nakamura was an American, and he understood that even in the face of your enemies, you still have to do what needs to be done."
Surely, I said...you're not talking insurrection?
"No...though we may have to keep that in mind some day...No, what I'm thinking is that the Democrats are going to lose their momentum if they just sit back and wait for the stars to align and their colors to coordinate.
"It's time the Democrats just went for it, cast it all on the toss of the dice...It's time that they 'go for broke'."
You do realize, I say to The Old One, that it could have repurcussions both politically and socially? That a series of setbacks will show people that the Democrats can't accomplish anything by sending bill after bill for veto? That the Republicans will make hay out of this, and point fingers at the Democrats for wasting time on bills that aren't already watered-down and gutted into ineffectiveness?
The Old One smiled that almost Cheshire Cat grin of his, and pulled at his coffee mug.
"People are smarter than that, boy. So long as the Democrats push bills that aren't so obviously stupid like pulling out all the troops by noon tomorrow, or loaded with handouts like gold toilet seats, I think people are smart enough to see they're making the effort.
"Right now, though, it looks more like they are just sitting back and taking it without a fight. And that's what people won't stand for, and that's what will cost them not just seats, but control of the Congress."
I see his point, and I am forced to concede it to him.
"Boy, over the war, the 442nd lost almost half its men, and was sent into the meat grinder because they were considered expendable.
"But they not only survived, but came out victorious in everything.
"Why? You have to ask yourself why did they do all this?"
I stay silent, because I want his words to state the obvious so eloquently for me.
"Because they had something to prove. Because they were considered to be losers and scum and enemy agents by their old neighbors and friends, they fought, and fought and never stopped fighting, from Hawai'i to the internment camps to the military bases they were assigned to.
"They had everything to lose, but they had so much more to gain.
"These wimpy-assed Democrats need to get re-educated on these guys, and learn from them. They need to grow some balls and just vote...it doesn't matter if they win or lose, or if that idiot Bush vetoes their bills.
"They need to 'Go For Broke' and make a stand, right here and right now."
I point out that the latest is that the Pentagon is planning to release a report that refutes most of the good General's and Ambassador's testimony.
"Good!" he says, "And if the Democrats want to get ahead, they need to get off their asses and vote this war to be over, and to hell with Bush and his pack of liars!"
With dinner over, and a much lighter conversation tonight, I scrapped my previous intended diary and wrote this while it was still fresh in my mind, the parallels so striking to my thoughts.
For years, those on the Left have been held prisoners by the Right, who controlled the airwaves and the mainstream media advantage was always in their favor...
But, like the select Nisei internees given a desperate chance to not only free themselves but protect the world from Nazi rule, so too are our Congressmembers able to free themselves and protect the world from Bush's imaginary enemies and make-believe weapon systems to fight pointless and bootless war without end.
Call upon your Democratic Senator or Representative to vote on meaningful and direct action legislation to stop this war, and stop the senseless death and violence that now, admittedly, serves no valid mission or goal for this nation.
Win or lose, pass or fail, veto or not.
If we "Go for broke", we will have at least fought and tried to remain free.
That is the wisdom of the 442nd that The Old One has passed along.
Perhaps we can make it the wisdom for the Democrats, too.