I decided to see what makes me such a radical. At five years old, my father backhanded me so hard he put a knot on my head as big as a golf ball for not eating corn beef hash from a can that smelled like dog food. No, probably not then, but it could have been at eight years old when I got between him and my mother trying to save her from getting beaten and was knocked out. I can’t now recall how many times, as a young man protecting my mother. I did realize that after a while, he didn’t like hurting me, so he would only hurt her when I was gone. But this wouldn’t make me a radical, would it? I would often not leave when he was drinking, no matter the reason. I figured all boys protected their mothers and wives.

Maybe it was sixteen when I ran away only to discover there is no actual demand to have a sixteen-year-old boy for over a night or two. I guess it could be when I hitchhiked from Picayune to Memphis to join the Army. Maybe when I decided to become a paratrooper jumping from planes, dramatic, in fact, once I landed on my head, maybe then.

I think going to war at 18 for my country might have done it. I have counted my firefights and came up in a year, right at 26 of them. For you naysayers on all things American, that wasn’t with me; I didn’t count them if they were off and on all day long as different firefights; I counted them as one. Some fights lasted only an hour or so. Having Malaria that almost killed me, the doctor told me he thought he had lost me twice; maybe I was radical then because I didn’t remember one minute.

I think it was when I was wounded and was flown out of battle to the hospital, but that can’t be true because many men were injured, and I don’t believe any of them, that I know, were declared radical. Maybe staying in combat days after my DEROS date because of an endless firefight, I couldn’t leave, and the chances of escaping alive didn’t look good at this very late date.

My R&R in Australia could have done it for sure. The woman I met and stayed with had some enormous, “giant” brothers on Earth. At one time, on arrival at 3 am, I believed my second purple heart or death was just minutes away.

To end this, maybe married to the same woman for 53 years? I raised four kids and many more that came for a night and never left. Perhaps it was my adoption of my youngest daughter. It could be the 20 cars I have bought for kids who spent the night just never to leave, grandkids that never wanted to go, and some I just loved. I have owned many Businesses and have failed in some and maybe again. I ran for the US Senate and helped my brother in the run for US Congress.

My radical ideals, killing an unborn child is wrong, the marriage between a man and woman(the only pair that can produce a child) , closing the border(illegal means it isn’t legal), men in women sports now this truly illegal, girls in boy scouts that is stupid, spending the country into ruination is a suicide, remember the building of the nation was from men like myself and others, maybe not always perfect but genuinely love their country and fought to prove it. I guess I will wear the radical name as a badge of honor..