Moroni-Baroni

I have the day off so I went out running late in the morning. After I finished, I was still about a klick from the house so I was walking back. Coming towards me were two bright-eyed, pimply-faced and ever-so-eager young men in suits and ties.

Can you guess who they were? Of course you can!

Holding a Copy of the Book of Mormon, Elder Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets tries to give it to me.

"I have a gift for you!"
"If I didn't take the gift from the cute red-headed girl who works for you guys, what makes you think I'll take it from you."
"But, but, it's a present."

I'll leave aside the fact that this so-called present is really a set of chains for the moment.

So my compulsion to tweak the noses of Mormons continues. I suspect it's part of a greater urge to tweak the noses of any evangelical type, but Mormons are what I have to work here in Cowtown so that's who gets their shit disturbed.

As an aside, It's been observed by some that if I'm macking on Mormon missionaries, I'm getting pretty desperate. I must think on this.

How Many 'Nam Vets Does it Take to Screw in a Lightbulb?

Two topics in this one, only tangentially related to each other.

One of my acquaintances is the (SCA) Principality Constable - security in the same way the Chirurgeon is first aid. We were discussing the problems he was having training replacements. You need to be certified to do the training and he isn't - basically he needs to take the teaching constable course first. The people qualified to teach him how to teach all live in Kingdom Core (The Greater Seattle area) and we're in Montengarde (Calgary) - the perils of living in a kingdom that takes two days to drive across.

How hard could it be, I asked. Pretty hard it seems, because most of the Knowne Worlde is in the United States, where SCA security is hard and takes a lot of manpower to accomplish at all. As the constable said, he has a "reportable incident" about once a year and that's typical for Avacal. In the states they average about three "reportable incidents" per event.

Later, I heard from another acquaintance who was talking about Estrella (one of the premier multi-kingdom events down in the states. I think only Pennsic is larger). I've been to neither, so YMMV.

A couple jackasses decided to blow off some fireworks in the middle of the night. Allegedly, this triggered flashbacks in three different Vietnam vets on site, who had to be restrained by friends from engaging in some unspecified violence.

Obviously, the fireworks shouldn't have been shot off. I can think of three good reasons right off the bat why: 1) it's against the law. 2) It's a fire hazard. 3) It's fucking rude.

However, every time I hear this (possibly urban legendish) tale - and I've heard it from three different people so far - the reason given for why it was bad is because it was insensitive to 'nam vets. WTF?

Two points: First, you can't live your life worrying about how some random stranger might wig out. Frankly, they could go nuts for any reason whatsoever, including you not doing something. it's a recipe for personal anxiety.

Second, it's been over thirty years, isn't it about time they got over it?

*** late addition ***

This is not to say that flashbacks are something someone simply gets over. However, after thirty years it should be clear to anybody so affected that they have a problem that needs dealing with - especially if fireworks cause them to be a danger to themselves and others. "Dealing with" the problem can include therapy or it can be simple avoidence - obviously therapy is the better option, but it's not the only one. My objection is how people make it everyone else's problem when it really is something the vets needs to deal with themselves.

Hopefully this will help explain my hot-button flip comment in a way that everyone can understand. That's the beauty of writing in LJ - I have time to reconsider and explain.

*** end addition ***

When I've made these two points in conversation, I've been accused of being insensitive to vets - of not understanding what they've gone through. I'll be the first to say that post traumatic stress syndrom is a terrible thing that I'm happy to have never experienced, but I have had bouts of mental illness in my life, and I've made the effort to deal with them.

It's true that the powers that be have not done their duty with these folks and gotten them treatment, but there comes a point where it's time to take responsibility for it yourself. I submit that thirty years is well past that time.

On the other hand, assuming this story is true (and I have big suspicions that it isn't), I doubt that these guys really did have flashbacks. I suspect it actually woke some guy up in the middle night, and he went looking for a fight. When told to knock it off, he said "I'm a Vietnam vet and this is exactly the sort of thing that can trigger a flashback". In the retelling, it stopped being about a pissed off vet and turned into a vet who was having flashbacks. Finally, it got multiplied to three 'Nam vets, and that's the story I heard.