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Eighteenth Job of Bob - The all-mighty "State," Part VII - college can't be that hard
This entry was posted on 9/25/2008 5:05 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
In my life to this point by 1993 I had been an Army Engineer in an outpost of paradise. I had been a farmer, landscaper, and manager with 21 people under my direction. I had been a school bus driver, feed mill worker, and furniture mover. I had bar tended, bounced, and welded. I had refinished buses, and repaired them too. I had sprayed weeds in parks in one of the biggest cities in America, and trimmed their trees as well. I had driven heavy trucks, scooploaders, and forklifts in the Army while still only 19 years old. I had already been to a dozen countries by the time I was 20. Now, here in this dusty old library in the middle of the night, I emptied trash cans from professors offices. I wondered sometimes if I had gone crazy and this was the waiting room. Maybe I really was "Going-to-hell... - and soon I would - ...see-white."
One night about 2:30 a.m. I was sweeping around the conference desks in the study room. The place closed to students after 3:00 a.m. Students often studied through the night. This particular night I paid attention to what they were talking about at one particular table. It caught my ear.
One student asked, "Was the Vietnam War before or after World War II?"
Another asked, "Was Nixon President during Vietnam or was that Kissinger guy President then? Who the hell was Robert McNamara?
Another student said, "Look, you guys are so stupid, the Vietnam War was a war in Korea. It is a country in South America."
That was enough! I stopped in my tracks with my broom in hand and stared at them all. They never noticed. "College," I thought to myself, "...could not be that fucking hard." It was at that moment that a goal was put in motion. It was like a big giant wheel on some machine - it took a few moments for it to actually get rolling, but then it would run and lumber along by centrifugal force.
It would be another couple years before I actually started classes. But, that night the genie was let out of the bottle - I would go back to college if I had to live in a card board box to do it. I would never except conventional wisdom again that used terms like, "Well, they say;" or "Well, I suppose;" or "Well, I don't know.'' I would listen to no discouragement on my desire. I would go back, slowly and for sure.
A few weeks later Heide found me sitting in the easy chair in our duplex's little living room with the comfortable wood floors at 6:00 a.m.
"You did not go to work," she said to me. Then she stopped in mid-sentence and said, "Wait, I know that look. You went to work but you quit. I know you inside and out. What will you do now?" she finally asked.
"Go back to college," I said. She smiled a small smile, turned, and went to get ready for work.
Wisconsin military service person of the week
Marine Corporal Adrian V. Soltau, 21 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was on his second tour of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was killed in an explosion Monday, September 13, 2004 near Fallujah, in Anbar Province, Iraq. He was killed in combat action. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated that Adrian followed his older brother Andre, 23, onto the football team and honor roll at Milwaukee Madison High School, then into the Marine Corps. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Corporal Soltau was nearing his time to come home. Adrian Soltau has seven siblings. He went to boot camp in August 2001 two years after his brother entered the Corps. Corporal Soltau was in Company A, 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. Adrian was the second graduate of Milwaukee Public Schools to die in Iraq since March of 2003. Marine Corporal Adrian Soltau was the 21st Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
87,643 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,676 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,172 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
601 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
314 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
370 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
30,642 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
2,451 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
91 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
11 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
135 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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