In HBO’s “Westworld” -- about a Wild West theme park populated by robots -- there is a scene in which a robot character unloads his pistol at a human “guest.” When the approaching human shrugs off the bullets (one of the rules is that no robot can harm a human), the robot gawks in disbelief. Yet instead of trying something new, he merely reloads and keeps impotently shooting.
A couple of years ago, honored as keynote speaker at a gala hosted by the stunning Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago, I asked those assembled a question that I never stopped asking myself upon receiving this nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor: Why me? For, over the course of my service in Iwo Jima during World War II, there were men around me whom I had always thought gave so much more to the war effort—to our fight for freedom--and of those men, too many among them who never returned home, never got to experience once again the country that led the world living the values for which they sacrificed themselves.
Assuming that Hillary Clinton will not find some last-ditch bit of Clintonesque chicanery that will put her in the White House after all, Donald Trump will likely be inaugurated President come January 20, and he will have an ultimatum waiting for him.
I chose to donate a portion of the proceeds from my new book to this organization because I wanted to help those brothers and sisters who have served our country and who are suffering with mental illness while at the same time help to save a shelter dog or cat.
Give how badly we’ve managed to botch up health care here in the United States, you’d probably be surprised to find out that another country—Singapore—has used forgotten American ideas to build the world’s greatest health care system.
