June 2013

Another Look at OB Kabob

June 19, 2013 by Source
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By Judith Starker

Having lived in O.B. for almost 40 years I’ve watched the progression of dining options increase in quantity and finally quality.

I must confess to being a food snob, driven by my love of cooking and eating, and I have high standards for eating establishments. I want good quality food and a mellow environment, it is hard to get both. O.B. is getting much better on the diversity of food choices but mellow is hard to find near any beach community catering to a younger population.

With that said, I recently carried out from O.B. Kabob – a newly opened restaurant tucked in the corner on Bacon Street next to Winstons.

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Jim Hightower: Repeal the Patriot Act!

June 19, 2013 by Source
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We the People have now learned that all three branches of government have furtively conspired for seven years to violate our privacy—so, no, we don’t trust any of them.

By Jim Hightower / NationofChange / June 19, 2013

It’s back. The Patriot Act — that grotesque, ever-mutating, hydra-headed monstrosity from the Bush-Cheney Little Shop of Horrors — has risen again, this time with an added twist of Orwellian intrusiveness from the Obamacans.

Since 2006, Team Bush, and then Team Obama, have allowed the little-known, hugely powerful National Security Agency to run a daily dragnet through your and my phone calls — all on the hush-hush, of course, not informing us spyees. Now exposed, leaders of both parties are piously pointing to the Patriot Act, saying that it legalized this wholesale, everyday invasion of our privacy, so we shouldn’t be surprised, much less upset by NSA’s surreptitious peek-a-boo program.

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Olympic Bid is Perfect Opportunity to Address Chargers Stadium Quest

June 19, 2013 by Andy Cohen

Chargers-new-StadiumDiscussions should start now to plan for Olympic stadium, regardless of bid’s success.

By Andy Cohen

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner wants to bring the Olympics to San Diego. Actually, he wants to bring the Olympics to San Diego and Tijuana.

This is not exactly news if you follow local politics at all. Filner has been rather vocal about his desire to bring the 2024 games to America’s Finest City, and even more adamant about it being a bi-national effort.

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Ocean Beach Community Plan Update Draft Now Available

June 19, 2013 by Staff
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The newly-released Draft of the Ocean Beach Community Plan Update is now available on the San Diego Planning Commission website.

Here is the link to the website of the San Diego Planning Commission. Here is the PDF version.

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“U-T San Diego” Joins Over-The-Line in Fight Against “Free PB” Group

June 18, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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U-T Editorial Blasts Pacific Beach Group as “Spiteful” and Urges Filner and Goldsmith to Save OTL

With all the crises in the world and at home here, the editorial board at the U-T San Diego found it necessary today to wade into the brouhaha between “Over-The-Line” organizers and a social networking group out of Pacific Beach, called FreePB.org . The editorial called the PB group’s effort to hold an even with the exact same conditions that OTL is allowed by the City and police and threatening to go to court “a spiteful maneuver” and begged:

“This is not the kind of dispute that should ever end up in court. We urge Mayor Bob Filner and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith tdo work together to assure that the OTL is not derailed.”

Of course, this is the same Mayor Bob Filner who is vilified daily by the newspaper, its editorial board and political cartoonist. … More inside …

Here’s Doug Porter’s excellent take on the issue from yesterday’s column at the San Diego Free Press.

Lawsuit Seeks to Shut Down Over The Line’s Boozin Beach Tournament; Preferential Treatment Claimed

By Doug Porter

A non-profit group has filed suit against the City of San Diego, seeking to block approval of a special-event permit for the 60th Annual World Championship Over-The-Line Tournament (OTL), scheduled for two weekends in July.

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Reader Rant: The “Vigilante Stop Signs” in Point Loma

June 17, 2013 by Source
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Editor: The following rant is an unsolicited article by Don Sevrens on the issue of “vigilante stop signs in Point Loma”. For earlier posts on the issue, go here, here, here, and here .

By Don Sevrens

Ever wonder why there seems to be a stop sign every two blocks whether needed or not?

The San Diego City Council has a curious policy that allows uninformed community planning groups to overrule the city’s traffic experts and, with the concurrence of one district council member, order stop signs installed.

There are no standards for collecting signatures or even telling the neighborhood what is going on. Just get a couple friends together, ask some community planner to schedule a vote and – presto! – you have new stop signs up.

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The Debate Continues – City Planner: “Everything you’ve always wanted to know about the Ocean Beach Community Plan Update, but were afraid to ask.”

June 17, 2013 by Source
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Editor: The following is another part of the debate over the new Draft OB Community Plan Update. This is by Maxx Stalheim, senior planner for the City of San Diego who was deeply involved in the rewrite of the OB Precise Plan. Stalheim has been making presentations around OB on the new Draft. The debate was kicked off by Geogg Page, who was responding to this report; Page was answered by Giovanni Ingolia. Stalheim writes his contribution in the form of questions and answers. The schedule for approval of the new Update can be found here.

By Maxx Stalheim, Senior Planner City of San Diego / Special to the OB Rag

What is a community plan?

A community plan is a blueprint for how the community will grow and develop over the next 20 years, or so. ….

Why is the Ocean Beach community plan being updated?

The City of San Diego adopted …

COME INSIDE

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No More Ho, Ho, Ho?

June 17, 2013 by Ernie McCray
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By Ernie McCray

I got a call on my message machine asking for my help regarding a “secular” matter. It was my first such request in all my 75 years so I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why me?” since I don’t, although I’m not religious, necessarily consider myself a secular human being, and also since this particular worldly problem pertained to La Jolla.

I mean when I moved to San Diego in 1962, I was, in and of my 6 foot five black self, a problem in La Jolla, feeling, whenever I visited, about as welcomed as a seal in the Children’s Pool, like an unwashed heathen in a pristine hallowed place.

This lovely hilly seaside community and I, however, over time have come a long way from when we started our relationship so many decades ago, as I have swum and body surfed in its waters and run and walked its shores and rapped with kids in its schools and read scripts on its stages. But I have never weighed in on La Jolla’s affairs, secular or otherwise.

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Beyond the “Conservative Entertainment Complex”

June 17, 2013 by Jim Miller

gobbelsBy Jim Miller

In this column that originally ran in December of last year, I discuss “the conservative media entertainment complex” as conceived of by former Bush propagandist David Frum and note that he only touches on the tip of the corporate media propaganda iceberg. What follows this is a beginners primer on how to decipher corporate media propaganda.

In the weeks following the election, David Frum made waves by explaining the shock in conservative circles over Romney’s loss with a bit of interesting media criticism: “Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex.”

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The Environmental Blame Game: Time to Look in the Mirror

June 17, 2013 by Source

co2_weekly_mlo_since1800By Jeffrey Meyer

The American public is addicted to carbon products for its energy needs and, despite overwhelming evidence that man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) is a credible threat to everyone, we lack the will to act. We tend to be quick to place blame for this situation, but perhaps it is time to look in the mirror.

There is finger pointing enough for everyone, from conflicting media reports, paralysis of our political system and corporate greed from the carbon industry. But is it really about them or is it about us, immobilized by a simple lack of effort to check out the facts?

It is true that some of our media just don’t understand the worldwide carbon industry, the eventual cost of its products both environmentally and to our bank accounts. Admittedly this lack of knowledge can create a confused and apathetic public.

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A Father’s Day Tale by California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera

June 16, 2013 by Staff

Juan Felipe Herrera shares stories and life lessons from his father.

Courtesty of UCTV

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The US Establishment Wants the American People Under Surveillance

June 16, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Let this moment be a educational one so let’s have the Debate that the President calls for

By Frank Gormlie

What a dastardly crazy last week and half it’s been.

Beginning Thursday, June 6th, with the Washington Post and the Guardian in London both running with the explosive news about the National Security Agency surveillance programs, we’ve been hit with daily revelations – that are still continuing every news cycle – that have created quiet a long list of whistle blower-delivered disclosures about what the government and the NSA are and have been doing to us – the American people.

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My Father: An American Success Story

June 16, 2013 by Source

Editor: In honor of Father’s Day, we run this tasteful ode to one father by Carlos Batara, a San Diego and Southern California immigration attorney and long-time supporter of the OB Rag.

By Carlos Batara

He never went home.

He left his native county at the age of 20 to find work. Born in an impoverished area of a poor country, he left home to earn money which he could send back to his mother and eight siblings.

He ventured through, and stayed briefly at, a few countries, eventually reaching the United States.

For the next 25 years, he crisscrossed California, Arizona, and Utah, moving from crop to crop before settling in San Diego where he worked as a dishwasher at one of the city’s most prestigious restaurants.

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Poll Shows Community Divided Over Whether to Keep New Brighton Ave. Beach Restrooms Open at Night

June 14, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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A new poll at the OB Rag clearly shows that the community is divided over whether to shut the new Brighton Avenue public restrooms down at night or keep them open 24/7.

In our weekly poll, begun Sunday, June 9th, 54% of the respondents said the restrooms should be kept open, whereas 45% voted to close them at night. As of 10:00 a.m. 6/14/13, 71 people had taken the poll, with one claiming no opinion.

Here is the Poll:

Brighton Beach Restroom Hours

Do you think the new public restrooms at the foot of Brighton Ave. at the beach should be open 24/ 7 or closed at night?

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Ocean Beach Village and Peninsula News – Friday, June 14, 2013

June 14, 2013 by Staff
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* “Godspell” Musical Opens Friday at OB Playhouse

Today – Friday, June 14, the musical “Godspell” opens at the Ocean Beach Playhouse as the first in a full season of shows. Organizers call this a “classic Stephen Schwartz musical is unlike you have ever seen it before!” The Ocean Beach Playhouse is located at 4944 Newport Ave.

* 100th Anniversary of OB’s Wonderland One of Themes of 2013 Street Fair – Saturday, June 22

* OB Street Fair with Kids Fun Zone

* Cliff Walls Graffiti Clean-up

* Congressman Peters Speaks Against Increases in Student Loan Rates

* Scripps Point Loma Pier to Be Replaced Just in Time for New Navy Research Ship, “Sally Ride”

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Debate Over New Draft OB Community Plan Update Continues – Response to “Huh”

June 14, 2013 by Source
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Editor: The debate over the newly-released Draft OB Community Plan Update continues. Here, Giovanni Ingolia, a current member of the OB Planning Board and Co-Chair of the Community Plan Update Subcommittee, responds to a post by Geoff Page, former chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board. Page was reacting to reports both at the OB Rag and SDNews.com about presentations on the new Draft Update by senior city planner Maxx Stalheim.

By Giovanni Ingolia

Mr. Page,

As someone who has been sitting on the OB Planning Board for 7 years, its Vice Chair for 3 years, the Chair for 2 years, and currently co-chair of the OB Plan Update Subcommittee ( along with Mindy Pellissier) I never understood why individuals like you always attacked city staff as the problem.

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Man’s body pulled from San Diego River near Ocean Beach

June 13, 2013 by Staff

About 9 this morning – Thursday, June 13 – a person on the OB Bike Path that runs along the southern edge of the San Diego River saw a body of a man in the water and mud. They reported it to authorities. Lifeguards waded out to about 30 feet from the river’s edge and […]

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Peninsula Restaurants Win Golden Medallion Awards

June 13, 2013 by Staff
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A number of area restaurants in Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Shelter Island have recently won awards from the California Restaurant Association. The Golden Medallion Awards were handed out by the San Diego County Chapter of the CRA at its 29th annual awards banquet held on June 4th at the Town & Country Resort.

These are supposedly San Diego’s “most prestigious restaurant honors”, as the industry association peer-to-peer awards those “worthy and exceptional restaurants” in the San Diego area. As PR of the event states:

It is an opportunity for members to acknowledge their fellow restaurateurs for their business practices, concepts, and achievements in more than 40 award categories.

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‘Hanging On……and Letting Go’ – Musings on San Diego Politics

June 13, 2013 by Source

Illustration by AP for a business centerpeiceBy Norma Damashek / San Diego Free Press

I took a mindful walk through downtown La Jolla this morning. It was my version of a meditative exercise that’s supposed to smooth your soul and clear your mind.

Here’s how it’s done: you put one foot in front of the other in the usual way of walking while you notice what’s around you.

First you notice. And then you let it go.

Notice…and let it go.

These are some of the things I noticed on my mindful walk:

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Sex in Point Loma: The Drought is Affecting More than the Water Table

June 13, 2013 by Judi Curry
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By Judi Curry

The well has run dry! There is nothing to be had anywhere. Life is a sad, lonely spiral, as the tap only trickles its remaining rust and dirt from the spigot. What the hell is she talking about, you ask? On line dating, of course!

I’ve tapped into Zoosk. I turned the spigot off on eHarmony. I cleaned out the faucet on Mingle. I prayed for a good catch at JD. I fished at Plenty of Fish. I didn’t care if I was overweight at Big and Beautiful People Meet. I didn’t lie about my age at Senior People Meet. It wasn’t my time at OurTime.com. There were no rich men at RichMen.com. There were no matches at Match.com and several other sites that I don’t remember for I was with them a very short time.

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Former CIA Employee, Snowden, Blows Whistle on NSA’s Dragnet Surveillance

June 12, 2013 by Source
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By Marjorie Cohn / truthout

Just as Bradley Manning’s court-martial was getting underway, another brave whistleblower dropped a bombshell into the media: The Obama administration is collecting data on every telephone call we make. Nearly 64 years to the day after George Orwell published his prescient book 1984, we have learned that the “Thought Police” are indeed watching every one of us. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” Edward Snowden told the Washington Post.

A former undercover CIA employee who has worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) for four years, Snowden provided a secret order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to the Guardian. The order requires Verizon on an “ongoing daily basis” to provide the NSA information about all phone calls in its system both in the United States and other countries.

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Peninsula Restaurant Review: Firehouse Subs

June 12, 2013 by Judi Curry
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Firehouse Subs
3625 Midway Dr., Ste. U
San Diego, CA 92110
619-925-3473

I received a flyer in the mail for the “Firehouse Subs” and thought I’d take Monica out with me and try it. I was not sure where it was, but guessed that it must be at the Food Court in the Vons Shopping Lot.

(I was wrong – but Wow! What in the world happened to the Food Court? Why did all those restaurants close down? More on that at the end …)

However, when we got there we realized our error – it is actually next to the veterinarian office, on the corner, across from Kinko’s in the Vons shopping center.) And you know what else?

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Mayor Filner on the Adoption of His Budget for San Diego

June 11, 2013 by Source
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Editor: The following is the News Release straight from Mayor Filner’s office on the passage of his budget on Monday, June 10th.

CITY COUNCIL ADOPTS MAYOR’S FRAMEWORK
FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS IN THE YEAR AHEAD!!!

Mayor’s First Budget Focuses on Economic Recovery and Includes a Five-Year Labor Deal that Provides the City with Financial Stability

Mayor Bob Filner’s balanced budget and financial priorities were adopted by the San Diego City Council late this evening. A 7-2 majority of the Council sided with the Mayor and made an unequivocal commitment to fiscal responsibility and enhanced city services for the coming year.

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Faulconer: ‘Mayor’s Budget is missed opportunity to cut bureaucratic waste’

June 11, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Editor: The following press release was received from Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office on the issue of Mayor Bob Filner’s City budget – just approved Monday, June 10th, by a 7 – 2 vote of the Council. Faulconer was one of the votes opposed. We publish the statement verbatim, including the headlines.

Faulconer’s Labor Deal Ok’d to Save Taxpayers $1 Billion

While Mayor Filner’s Budget Delays Tens of Millions of Dollars in Neighborhood Services

Today, the City Council approved a historic labor agreement after tough negotiations led by Councilmember Kevin Faulconer. The five-year agreement will save San Diegans nearly $1 billion by implementing the five year pensionable pay freeze called for in 2012’s

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“It’s a new day in San Diego” as Mayor Filner’s Budget Is Approved – Despite Faulconer’s Opposition

June 11, 2013 by Doug Porter
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Bus Passes, Library Funding and Arts Programs All Get Funded; OB’s Councilman Objects to “Missed Opportunity” Because of No Cuts to “Waste”

By Doug Porter

It’s a new day in San Diego as the priorities of the Filner administration are becoming reality with the passage of the City budget for 2013-2014.

Yesterday [June 10] the San Diego City Council approved a $2.75 billion budget including a $1.2 billion general fund, which pays for basic services like public safety and recreation centers. Virtually all of Mayor Filner’s proposals were endorsed.

The vote on the overall budget was 7-2, with Councilmen Kevin Faulconer and Scott Sherman opposing.

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Reader Rant: “Huh?” – a Response to the New Draft Ocean Beach Community Plan Update

June 11, 2013 by Source
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Editor: The following “Reader Rant” is written by Geoff Page, a former chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, as a response to presentations by City planners of the new Draft OB Community Plan Update. Geoff is responding to a report in the OB Rag of Maxx Stalheim’s presentation to the OB Planning Board on June 5th, plus to other sources as well. Maxx Stalheim is the senior planner involved in the 11 year process of rewriting OB’s Precise Plan, and he did announce he was retiring next month at the OB Planning Board meeting on June 5. The OB Rag has invited Mr Stalheim to write a statement about the new Draft Update.

By Geoff Page

I am really happy Maxx Stalheim is retiring, we all should be.

Let’s look at the “highlights” Stalheim described. The first one was :

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OB Restaurant Review: The Third Corner

June 11, 2013 by Judi Curry
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The Third Corner
2265 Bacon Street
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619.223.2700

Last Sunday. two new new friends, Susan and John, joined me for dinner at “The Third Corner” for their Prix-Fixe Sunday dinner.

“The Third Corner” is where one of my favorite restaurants used to be – the Belgian Lion -. I was sorry to see it close down, but have been to “The Third Corner” several times and have enjoyed it. This was the first time I had been there for their special Sunday menu, and it was also the first time for Susan and John.

We had barely been sitted when we were served fresh bread and butter.

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More from the OB Planning Board Meeting of June 5

June 10, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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There was a lot going on at the last OB Planning Board meeting; there was the unveiling of the new design for World Oil’s Sunset Plaza and a presentation by City planners on the new draft OB Community Plan Update. And there was more ….

Meeting in the community room of the OB Rec Center last Wednesday, June 5th, Chair Tom Gawronski gaveled the meeting to order right around 6pm. He had a quorum: newly appointed Andrew Waltz of District 1, Board members Barbara Schmidtknecht and Kevin Becker from District 2, Scott Therkalsen for District 3, Ronson Shamoun District 4 (Kelly Taing was absent), Giovanni Ingolia and Bill Bushe District 5, Tom and Pete Ruscitti District 6, and Raeanon Hartigan for District 7.

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Point Loma’s Nazarene University Has College Baseball’s “Most Scenic Ballpark”

June 10, 2013 by Staff
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Recent renovations at Point Loma Nazarene University’s baseball field has earned it a new title: “America’s Most Scenic Ballpark”. This title was bestowed on the field, named after the university’s long-time coach, Carroll B Land, by Baseball America Magazine, which is considered the No. 1 authority on college baseball.

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“Beating the Dead Grass . . . .” – Revisiting Ft Rosecrans Cemetery

June 10, 2013 by Judi Curry
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This article has several messages I would like to discuss. Last year I wrote about the deplorable condition of Ft. Rosecrans. Just a few weeks ago I was quoted by the “editordude” in an article regarding the condition of Ft. Rosecrans during the Memorial Day holiday.

To briefly recap that quote, several of the women from my widow support group went up to Ft. Rosecrans to visit our husbands. Even though we know they are not “there” – talking to them is no different than when they were with us – they don’t listen and they didn’t respond. However, whereas we used to be able to sit under a tree on the green grass and have a picnic, the green grass and the trees are gone.

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