Sign of the Times

Last week till today is the annual Fleet Week event in New York and I didn't even realize it.

Normally, no matter what time of the day or night it is in New York City during Fleet Week, you will see tons of sailors in uniforms enjoying what New York has to offer. You just happen to be walking to work on a Monday morning, see 10 sailors walking together looking up at the skyscrapers and realize "Oh, it's Fleet Week." Then a block away are 5 or 6 more sailors doing the same thing. You get the idea. For that entire week, these sailors are as big a part of the New York City landscape as the Empire State Building and Rockeffeler Center are.

Not this year. I didn't see a sailor on the streets until Wednesday or Thursday and the packs they normally travel in were so much smaller. The biggest group I saw was maybe 2 or 3. And sightings were fewer and far between compared to previous year. When I finally did see a small group of sailors, that's when it hit me that it was Fleet Week.

I guess most of our sailors, along with the rest of our soldiers, our much busy somewhere else (and God Bless Them for doing what they do). But I couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness. These men and women who would normally be walking the streets of New York right now are instead caught up in far more serious matters. And no matter what your political views are, you have to agree that ideally, you'd rather that they be clogging up the streets of New York City like they do every year instead of being where they are currently.