{"id":1588,"date":"2019-01-13T20:14:24","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T20:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2019-01-13T20:14:24","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T20:14:24","slug":"old-soldier-writes-letter-his-granddaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1588","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Old soldier\u2019 writes letter to his granddaughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas author Michael Lee Lanning\u2019s<\/strong> 25th book is Dear Allyanna, An Old Soldier\u2019s Last Letter to His Granddaughter<\/em> (John M. Hardy Publishing, $18.95 paperback).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the book, Lanning, 72, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who was diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer in 2006 and given six to eighteen months to live, offers his observations, experiences, opinions, and advice on a myriad of topics, in alphabetical order from abortion (pro-choice) to Zen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis letter,\u201d he writes, \u201cis not about my dying but rather about my living.\u201d His primary purpose in writing the book, he said, was to leave something behind for his grandchildren, but a secondary purpose was to inspire others to leave a written legacy for their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 225 pages, Lanning covers more than 150 subjects, some in just a paragraph or two and some in several pages. A few examples, serious and trivial, whether you agree or not:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

National service: <\/strong>\u201cAt age 18 all Americans, both men and women, should have to register for national service.\u201d He advocates one to two years, either military or civil service, no exemptions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Capital punishment:<\/strong> He opposes the death penalty, but strongly believes in life sentence without parole. \u201cPeople who kill or commit heinous crimes should know that they will die in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exclamation points: <\/strong>\u201cBe extremely judicial in your use of exclamation points. Have your words show exclamation, not your punctuation.\u201d (Hear, hear!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meetings:<\/strong> \u201cIn both your professional and personal life, you will find the greatest waste of time is in attending meetings. Mostly they merely offer the venue for the boss to sit at the head of the table and show that he or she is indeed the boss.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Military:<\/strong> \u201cWhatever its faults and failures, a strong, viable military is the one absolutely essential ingredient to the survival or our country and way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bow ties:<\/strong> \u201cBow ties are not serious. Neither are those who wear them.\u201d (Ouch!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Theme parks:<\/strong> They\u2019re for small children. \u201cOne of the most pitiful things in the world is a grownup wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt proclaiming Disneyland is \u2018the happiest place on earth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LGBT:<\/strong> \u201cLesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders deserve the same rights, privileges, and protections as any other citizen. No less, no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hawaiian shirts:<\/strong> \u201cNo Hawaiian shirt should be worn more than 12 miles inland from a major sea or ocean.\u201d (Ouch, again.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Baseball hats:<\/strong> For those who wear their hats backwards, \u201cI strongly suspect there is little in their head under their hat \u2014 with the possible exception of baseball catchers.\u201d (Applause.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gun control:<\/strong> \u201cInstead of attempting to regulate guns, we should maximize the punishment against those who use them illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obesity:<\/strong> \u201cEat less and exercise more \u2014 and the best exercise is pushing oneself away from the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

News:<\/strong> \u201cYour generation has turned its back on the printed page, but I encourage you to take a look at your local paper for a week or so. I think you will find it informative as well as interesting \u2014 and much more focused than television and digital news.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can read more about Lanning\u2019s books \u2014 most of them having to do with the Vietnam War and military history \u2014- on his website, michaelleelanning.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s latest book is \u201cBook Guy: One Author\u2019s Adventures in Publishing,\u201d which he dedicated to his grandchildren, \u201cso they will know.\u201d Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas author Michael Lee Lanning\u2019s<\/strong> 25th book is Dear Allyanna, An Old Soldier\u2019s Last Letter to His Granddaughter<\/em> (John M. Hardy Publishing, $18.95 paperback).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}