James &uot;Cooter&uot; Thompson sent his last suggestions up for John Kerry intending to improve John’s campaign. Cooter is the Designated Letter Writer for the boys down in Lagniappe, Louisiana at Daryl’s Bait Shop. He said, &uot;John, we got indoor privies, color TV, cell phones, and computers. Give us some credit for brains and understanding. We know that economic conditions are good and getting better. Your telling us we’re miserable, deluded fools just won’t fly. And it gives us the eerie feeling that you’re hoping for a relapse into recession to help your electoral chances.&uot;

&uot;You have beaten all your Democratic opponents in all the primaries and caucuses held for you. Yet you seem out of touch with America. Maybe you’ve been a politician to long, been campaigning too long and you needing a break before the convention. We all think the best thing you can do is haul out your Harley, put TeRayza on the pillion and take off for the Sturgis South Dakota Bike Rally. Meet the folks. A few of us from Daryl’s will be there. You don’t have to get tattooed.&uot;

Suggested sign for the newly allowed Porn Shop &uot;Sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.&uot;

Now that the week of War Remembrance is behind us, let’s take a look at another great bunch of warriors of the present. We hear the body count, see pictures of the flag draped caskets, and we are almost on a first-name basis with the human garbage that abused the Iraqi prisoners. And we hear constantly how the world hates us. Such is our free press.

But you didn’t hear about First lieutenant Brian Chontosh of the United States Marines. He just received the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery. That is a big deal and we hear none of that kind of news.

So what did he do to earn it? On the march into Bagdad Brian was platoon leader in a humvee with his men when all hell broke loose. Ambush city. They were cut to ribbons with mortars, machine guns, and propelled rocket grenades.

As he tried to poke a hole in the Iraqi line they became fish in a barrel, directly under fire from a machine gun. He told the driver to head directly at the gun emplacement and had his own gunner open up with the fifty calibers. He then told the driver to head into the Iraqi trench. Brian bailed out carrying an M16, a Beretta pistol, and 228 years of Marine Corps pride. He ran down the trench with its mortars and riflemen, machineguns and grenadiers…and he killed them all. He fought with the M16 until out of ammo, then with the Beretta until it was empty. Then he picked up another dead man’s AK47 and fought with that until it out of ammo.

At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion.

When he was done he had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis and had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more. The citation reads, though I’m sure Brian would humbly disagree, &uot;By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, 1st Lt. Chontosh reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps.&uot; That’s what the citation says, and that’s what nobody will hear about.

The press as propaganda dismisses these accounts of American valor. Yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It tells me the role of the media is to depress, not inform; to deride, not report. They feed us what they’d rather say or print. But there will still be heroes like Brian Chontosh.

Robert Pocklington is a resident of Suffolk and a regular News-Herald columnist. He can be contacted via e-mail: robert.pocklington@suffolknewsherald.com