Tuesday, November 11, 2014

365 Reasons to Fight

Two and half months after we wed in 2006, my husband left to spend a year-long deployment in Iraq.  I wrote him a LOT of letters.  One of the early ones included a list of reasons to fight:  one for every day he'd be gone.  At one of his duty stations, he would choose one of the reasons each day and type it into the screen saver on his computer. Some of the other soldiers started asking, "What are we fighting for today?"  I can only imagine what they must have thought of me on some days.

Some of the items on the list are things he or I loved, but an American soldier also fights for things he  (or she) doesn't love.  Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served to protect our rights to disagree.

Click "Read more" to see list:


365 Reasons to Fight

1.    Addams Family values
2.    Airplane
3.    All You Can Eat
4.    American Pie
5.    Amnesty International
6.    Ani Difranco
7.    Animal House
8.    Another day closer to coming home
9.    Apple pie
10. For the sake of argument
11. Art
12. Astrology
13. You haven’t been to Australia yet
14. The B-52’s
15. Baby needs a new pair of shoes
16. Bachelor parties
17. Bailey’s Irish Cream
18. Baseball
19. Our bathtub
20. Bauhaus
21. BDSM
22. Beat poets
23. Beer
24. Belly dancers
25. The Big Bang Theory
26. The Big Easy
27. Bikini-clad hotties with AK47s
28. Bikinis
29. Bill Hicks
30. Birth control
31. Blackjack
32. Boat drinks
33. Bob & Cookie
34. Body shots
35. Bond girls
36. Boondocks
37. Bourbon Street
38. David Bowie
39. Buddha
40. Your buddies
41. The Bumble
42. Bumper stickers
43. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
44. Bustiers
45. Cable Access TV
46. Cable TV
47. George Carlin
48. Cartoonists
49. Casey’s softball
50. Catholic school girl uniforms
51. Centerfolds
52. A Charlie Brown Christmas
53. Cheesey poofs
54. Your potential children
55. Chips, dips, chains, whips
56. Chocolate Easter bunnies
57. Choice
58. Christmas
59. Civil rights
60. Clever Sign Chick
61. Kurt Cobain
62. Coconut bras
63. Co-ed dorms
64. Coke
65. The Colbert Report
66. Comic books
67. Conversation hearts
68. Co-rec sports
69. Corsets
70. Costume parties
71. Covens
72. The Crow
73. Tim Curry
74. Your dad
75. Dancing
76. Darwin fish
77. Democracy
78. Cedric Diggory
79. Discotheques
80. Dixieland jazz
81. Some day you want a dog
82. The dollar store
83. Doonesbury
84. The Easter Bunny
85. Education
86. Elbow sex
87. Election Day
88. Elvis
89. The Empire State Building
90. Equal rights
91. Evolution
92. The F word
93. Fan fiction
94. Fast food
95. Fat Boy Slim
96. FDNY
97. Fetish nights
98. Firefly
99. Fishnet stockings
100.      Flavored condoms
101.      Flight 93
102.      The Flying Saucer
103.      Flying Spaghetti Monster (may He touch you with His Noodly Appendage)
104.      Fooball!
105.      Four-wheelin
106.      The 4th of July
107.      Fraoch
108.      Freedom of assembly
109.      Freedom of the press
110.      Freedom of religion
111.      Freedom of speech
112.      Free enterprise
113.      Free refills
114.      Frosty the Snowman
115.      Fruitcakes
116.      Garter belts
117.      Geneva Convention(s)
118.      GI Jooooooe
119.      Girl-on-girl action
120.      Girls Gone Wild
121.      Girl scout cookies
122.      Go-karts
123.      The Golden Gate Bridge
124.      Goldschlager
125.      Goth
126.      Graffiti
127.      Your potential grandchildren
128.      Graphic novels
129.      Grass skirts
130.      Groundhog Day
131.      Grunge
132.      Guinness
133.      The guy in front of you
134.      Halloween
135.      Harry Potter
136.      You have to take me to Hawaii
137.      Heavy Metal Parking Lot
138.      The hell of it
139.      Heroes who served before you
140.      The Hibernian
141.      High heels
142.      Hockey
143.      Buddy Holly
144.      The Holy Grail
145.      Hot dogs
146.      Hot pants
147.      Our house (in the middle of our street)
148.      John Hughes
149.      Hula hoops
150.      Humour
151.      Hurricanes from Pat O’Brien’s
152.      Individuality
153.      Innocent until proven guilty
154.      The Internet
155.      You haven’t been to Ireland yet
156.      It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it
157.      Jay and Silent Bob
158.      Jeans
159.      Getting jibby wid it
160.      Mr. Jinx
161.      Woody Johnson (my airheaded friend)
162.      Jungle love
163.      The Kama Sutra
164.      The Kentucky Fried Movie
165.      Kilts
166.      The Kim Tape
167.      KMFDM
168.      Kulture Vulture
169.      Lap dances
170.      Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, oldest bar in North America
171.      Laughter
172.      Led Zeppelin
173.      Leg lamps
174.      David Letterman
175.      Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
176.      The Liberty Bell
177.      Libraries
178.      The Limeys can’t do it on their own
179.      Lipstick lesbians
180.      Live sex shows
181.      Living in sin
182.      Lords of Acid
183.      Lottery tickets
184.      Magic 8-balls
185.      The Man Show
186.      Those funny funny Maplethorpe photos
187.      Mardi Gras
188.      Marginis
189.      Massage
190.      Masturbation
191.      Match.com
192.      Memorial Day
193.      Microbrews
194.      Mind of Mencia
195.      “Mind the gap!”
196.      Mini skirts
197.      Miss Frisky (or is that Mrs.?)
198.      Mohawks
199.      Mom
200.      Mona Lisa
201.      Marilyn Monroe
202.      Monster trucks
203.      Monty Python
204.      Mount Rushmore
205.      Moveon.org
206.      Mr. Pokey
207.      Mud wrestling
208.      Mullets
209.      Eddie Murphy
210.      Myspace
211.      NASA
212.      NCAA office pools
213.      Nemo me impune lacessit
214.      Newcastle Brown Ale
215.      Nobody puts baby in a corner
216.      No taxation without representation
217.      Nude beaches
218.      Numerology
219.      The Office
220.      Office Space
221.      Old folks need cheap heating oil
222.      Old Glory
223.      The Olympics
224.      The Onion
225.      Open 24 Hours
226.      Oral sex
227.      Outdoor concerts
228.      Bettie Page
229.      Parades
230.      Pasties
231.      PCU
232.      Peaceful demonstrations
233.      Pentagrams
234.      Petit verdot (cuz you know how it makes me feel)
235.      Phone sex
236.      Pierced anythings
237.      Pillowpants
238.      Pipeline
239.      Your plate at the Saucer
240.      Playboy
241.      Playoff beards
242.      Pod casts
243.      Poker
244.      Pork chops & applesauce
245.      Porn
246.      Powderpuff football
247.      Priest!!!!!!
248.      Private Ryan
249.      Prodigy
250.      Public displays of affection
251.      Pubs
252.      Punk
253.      Your favorite quotes
254.      Qwickie marts
255.      Rally racing
256.      The Ramones
257.      The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
258.      Reggae
259.      Ren fests
260.      Your retirement fund
261.      Ribbed for hear pleasure
262.      The right to an attorney
263.      The right to remain silent
264.      Rivetheads
265.      Road trips
266.      Robert the Bruce
267.      Rock & Roll
268.      The Rocky Horror Picture Show
269.      Roller derby
270.      Romance novels
271.      Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
272.      Runes
273.      St. Michael
274.      St. Patrick’s Day
275.      The Sandman
276.      San Francisco
277.      Santa Claus
278.      Satire
279.      Saturday Night Live
280.      Schoolhouse Rock
281.      Science
282.      The Scream
283.      SETI
284.      The Sex Pistols
285.      Shopping!
286.      The Simpsons
287.      Siouxsie
288.      Ska
289.      Skinnydipping
290.      Slapshot
291.      Southern Culture on the Skids
292.      Southpark
293.      Spam
294.      Spandex
295.      Because no one expects the Spanish Inquisition
296.      Spiderman
297.      Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition
298.      Stanley Cup must not fall into undeserving hands
299.      Star Trek
300.      Star Wars
301.      The Statue of Liberty
302.      Stone circles
303.      Superbowl parties
304.      Surfing
305.      Swing dance
306.      Swingers
307.      T-shirts
308.      Tailgating
309.      Talk Sex (old Canadian lady)
310.      Tan lines
311.      Tarot cards
312.      Tattoos
313.      Techno
314.      Texas Hold’em
315.      Theatre
316.      So Chuck can go to Thee Dollhouse
317.      Charlize Theron
318.      Thongs
319.      Henry David Thoreau
320.      Timmay!!!
321.      Toasts
322.      The Tooth Fairy
323.      Topiary (in strange places)
324.      Trick-or-treating
325.      Trinity
326.      Truth, justice & the American way
327.      The Twin Towers
328.      Twister (the game)
329.      U2
330.      Valentine’s Day
331.      Valle Crucis
332.      Vegas, Baby!
333.      Venus de Milo
334.      Veteran’s Day
335.      VH-1
336.      Viagra
337.      Vibrators
338.      Victoria’s Secret
339.      The Violent Femmes
340.      Voodoo
341.      Wahines
342.      William Wallace
343.      Wardrobe malfunctions
344.      The Washington Monument
345.      Andy Warhol
346.      John Waters
347.      Miss Wednesday
348.      Dr. Ruth Westheimer
349.      Wet t-shirt contests
350.      The Whale
351.      Cuz this is my United States of Whatever
352.      Whisky
353.      Walt Whitman
354.      Whose Line Is It, Anyway?
355.      Wicca
356.      Your wife
357.      Robin Williams
358.      Wine
359.      The Wizard of Oz
360.      XXX
361.      Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
362.      You gotta fight for your right to party
364.      Yourself

365.      Zebraman

1 comment:

  1. Every single thing in this list is worth fighting for. Thank you, Sean (and Margie).

    ReplyDelete