http://www.theolympian.com/570/story/398892.html

I'm going to get on my soapbox here.

I'm tired of the graffiti. I'm tired of our town being plastered with it. Free walls are just fine and dandy, in fact some are really beautiful. It's the garbage on my neighborhood stop signs, street signs, power utility boxes, local mini-mart, bus stops, and now this crap. Whip out a can of $2.50 Krylon and cause a $1000 worth of damage.

No intellectual discussion here, no sir-ree. Just a rant.

I'm a huge aviation fan and have been ever since I was little. My family are a bunch of aviation fans also, my father and I fly model airplanes, sister was a flight attendant. But ever since I was a boy, I've attended airshows pretty frequently. On June 17-18, the Olympic Flight Museum is hosting their annual airshow. I've had an absolutely wonderful time in the past and took my twin boys last year.

The week prior to the event is fun as I get to sit in my back yard and listen to those huge radial engines roar over my house (I'm in the KOLM flight path) while I drink beer. To me, there is no better sound than Pratt and Whitney's and a Rolls Royce Merlin doing a low flight by; music to my ears.

You can check out more information at their website: www.olympicflightmuseum.com 

Last year was pretty busy and lots of folks showed up making for a long walk from the parking lot. Here's a couple pictures of a Grumman FM-2 Wildcat and North American P-51D I took last year.  

My wife and I a couple evenings ago, sitting outside on a Friday night over a couple of drinks, had a good conversation about our feelings of Olympia and its residents. First you have to understand my wife and I are like James Carville and Mary Matalin. She a greener, and I a southerner from Atlanta. Makes for interesting conversations no less :) But she asked me about my attitude towards the recent protests of the last year since I've returned from the sandbox.

The folks on the corner in Sylvester Park once a week bothered me at first after returning home. But as time went on, even though I completely disagreed with them, I came to have a new found respect for their commitment and convictions. The same group of folks week after week after week for the past year, stood on that corner rain or shine. They have my respect. The Port is another story and yes, I do feel strongly about what happened. But that's another matter I don't want to get into at the moment.

Fast forward to today. The civil disturbance training is a state requirement and not a reaction to last week's protests. It's been planned for the last several months. Each battalion rotates every other year and is responsible for this duty. After starting off behind Avanti H.S. the soldiers moved back to the armory for a practical exercise and final written test. That's when a couple of anti-war folks showed up. We had a nice conversation with a gentleman about what we were doing and he asked several questions. I always find it nice when folks ask about us, what we do, and how the military works and he was genuinely interested. The people who came down were friendly and I said hi and talked to "Olygal" and another gentleman.

Drew was there filming what we were doing and for a moment I felt pretty awkwards. I didn't say anything to him for awhile. But after some time I asked him "Hey Drew, gonna put that up on the site?" It wasn't sarcasm, I just wanted to know if it was going to be posted so that I could save the video to my computer. I asked him "Are you Drew?" and he answered yes, and I extended my hand to introduce myself. I may completely disagree with Drew and what he has to say, but it seemed the nice thing for me to do. He and I talked for a bit and again, I disagree with what Drew has to say but the conversation was cordial. And this got me to thinking....