Comedy Warriors -- Healing Through Humor -- Meet Stephen Rice

My nephew Stephen Rice, one of the Comedy Warriors

My family has had a history of being soldiers -- both my Dad and my Father-in-Law, some uncles, my brother and some of my brothers-in-law, our younger son, his wife, her dad, & sisters, and many more who could be named.

I didn't grow up having an immediate love for the country of my birth.  As a child of missionary parents,  I left the country as a 3-1/2 yr. old, and other than one year (third grade) ... I didn't live in this country again until I was a freshman (the top grade in junior high school): 1967 -1968.  I had quite a  culture shock!  Not only did I see a different culture than the country in which I grew up (the Philippines - both in province and small town, as well as larger towns, & cities), but by the end of my first year back in the U.S., there had been two high profile men assassinated: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

Also at the end of that year, I had three major post-polio surgeries, and was housebound for the next six months.  When I attended my high school for the first time in January, 1969, I was attending a very nicely integrated school in southern IL, and there were were many race riots going on all over the U.S., and even some in my school ...  sometimes encouraged by grown men coming across the River from St. Louis.

I truly didn't "get it!"  I had grown up in my earliest years as the only white child in my town, and in many places that I traveled, and many of the people in the U.S. who were called "Black" did not have much darker skin than some of the people whom I lived with and loved as my own self. Why did everyone not get along? What was the big deal about skin color and the "racial" differences?

For much of my adult life even, I still felt very much divided -- not a true American nor a Filipino either. ( More on that in another post.)  But as I continued to learn more about this country -- that I now call my country,  too -- I did grow to love it, and to especially feel honor and pride towards those who serve this country in the 5 branches of the U.S. military services.

FIVE BRANCHES OF THE U.S. MILITARY - from Wikipedia - public domain photo

I began this post by showing you my nephew Stephen, my sister's son. He lost a leg while rescuing one of his men in Iraq.  I shall end the post with some pictures of Dad, Brother, and Son (who represent the Navy, Marines, & Army National Guard).  I also want to show my son Shaun's family since they had to sacrifice their husband and daddy as he has been deployed three separate times.

My Dad, Clinton Bonnell, who served in WWII

MY BROTHER DON BONNELL -- IN MARINE DRESS UNIFORM -- who served in the 80's.

Tristen's pure delight of having her Daddy back home after his 3rd full year deployment.

So I want to say a huge thank you to all of my family and friends, and also to those whom I do not know -- for the sacrifices that you have all made so that this country can be whatever we want to make of it -- freedoms that we must never  take for granted.  Some of these freedoms are (just to name a few) -- worshiping and voting as we please, speaking out for what we believe, living and traveling where we desire, etc.