Tuesday -- Tiw's day

Tuesday -- whether Germanic, Nordic, or Latin -- is about a god of war.
Tiw (or sometimes Tyr) is from the Germanic (or Nordic) god of war.
Mardi and martes are from French and Spanish and the Roman god of war -- Mars.

And speaking of war --
Last night we went to see the movie Jimmy. It's about Jimmy Stewart and how World War II affected his life and career, and how it shaped the man that he was.
It's a good film.

I am sure that it was shaped by and to fit Hollywood, but it was moving and represented some of the horrors of war well. On the drive home, I mentioned that the two things that really hit me about the film were 1) how difficult it must be to send your child off to war and 2) how hard it must be to return and try to live a normal life after having survived the experience of war.
It makes me angry to see the casual approach to war that politicians and this administration seem to have about the current wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. 

A 2010 study by the Veteran's Administration estimated that 22 veterans took their own lives -- everyday in the US. Awareness of this tragedy and help for veterans has adjusted the number downward to the current estimate of 17 to 20.
Seventeen to twenty veteran suicides EVERY DAY and we have a fucking embicile running the Department of Defense acting like a damn cheerleader promoting war like it's a glorious thing, and a Republican led Congress and Administration that has stripped away the much needed benefits for our vets.
Damn, that pisses me off.

Our no more wars president lied.
He's not going to get us out of his illegal money maker in Iran and he's going to continue to support Putin in Ukraine. And he's going to continue to spend our taxpayer dollars and send our kids into war zones.
He is a fucking traitor.

I remember a scene from a M*A*S*H episode. They are in the OR and someone comments that war is hell. Hawkeye says, "War is war and hell is hell and of the two of them, war is worse." Fr Mulcahy asks why, and Hawkeye explains that people in hell supposedly deserve to be in hell, but war hurts (and kills) people that are innocent of any wrong doing.

Maybe we need to find another name for Tuesday or martes. Maybe we need to find something that doesn't honor a god of war. We have become so desensitized to war that most of us say Tuesday casually, never realizing that it pays homage to a god of war.

John