Loyalty

This blog is usually about food and wine pairings from the five books in the Rick Podowski and The Hefty Trio amateur detective series. However this week we are going to do something different and talk about the theme of The Fishy Chips which is loyalty.  As of this moment the National Guard and police forces have been mobilized in Ferguson Mo, the two major political parties are locked in an epic battle and the recent election saw the lowest voter turnout since WWII.  As citizens of this great country we have to determine where to place our loyalty. Below is the note to the reader from  The Fishy Chips.

 "Loyalty cannot be blueprinted. It cannot be produced on an assembly line. In fact, it cannot be manufactured at all, for its origin is the human heart-the center of self-respect and human dignity. It is a force which leaps into being only when conditions are exactly right for it-and it is a force very sensitive to betrayal." ... Maurice R. Franks

Dear Reader,

Today the definition of loyalty is in the process of evolving. My father, the first person in his neighborhood to sign up for the Marine Corps at the time of World War II had no doubt that the war was being fought for reasons that no American patriot could afford to ignore. He returned, having suffered a broken back at Guadalcanal, with the scars left from bullet shots in his shoulder and even though he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and terrible pain, never doubted that he had been right to serve his country. His bonds to the men who served so loyally with him lasted until his death. Some fifty years later his tombstone was engraved with his Marine Corps rank.

I enlisted in the military during the Vietnam War and even though I didn't have to go to Vietnam, I was plagued by questions of what constituted loyalty to the country that I unquestionably loved. During my four years in the Air Force, I met many people who had been wounded in the war or had friends that paid the ultimate sacrifice. Several times I went to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, and each time I walked along the beautiful black marble wall, inscribed with the names of those who died, I asked myself why I had survived. In some bizarre way, it didn't seem fair. After leaving the military, I changed. I entered into endless discussions with a loyal friend, and the larger picture became clear, compelling me to participate in many peace marches.

My brother, who worked in an ammunition factory, had a very different view of the situation. He would stand in silent protest on a street corner with an artillery shell in his arms as the Vietnam anti-war protesters marched down the street.

The Vietnam War marked the point at which our definition of loyalty changed. Now, we ask whether we owe loyalty to our country even if our leaders lie to us. Is it disloyal to question their actions? Do we have a higher duty of loyalty to humanity? As the conflict within our government and  in the Middle East continues, these questions are being asked anew. It is with this in mind that I have written this novel.

"Conflicting Loyalties: An Excerpt from The Fishy Chips." was a winning entry in the 17th Annual Mendocino Coast Writer's Contest, Summer 2006. It was published in the Todd Point Review.