Kevin has a bit on “Why R. Lee Ermey Eatters,” because we need more cultural figures to show that shooting is FUN. We can all forget that sometimes. Despite the role Ermey is best known for, he was a hell of a nice guy. He also impressed me that he would attend NRA Board Meetings. There are some celebrities who I do not believe have even shown up to be sworn in. At the Glock booth, the line would always be around the corner (and Glock’s booth is BIG) to meet him and get a picture and autograph. Generally speaking, I don’t vote for celebrity Board members, even if they are sometimes contributors, just because they don’t need my help. But I always voted for Ermey. He struck me as a stand-up guy. And yes, the one time I saw him walking to the restroom from a Board meeting, I was tempted to tell the hotel staffer who also saw him walk by, “I hope that head is so sanitary and squared away that the Virgin Mary herself would be proud to go in there and take a dump!” That movie was one of those shared cultural experiences of my generation I’m not sure we really have anymore.
7 thoughts on “Culture Leads Politics”
Comments are closed.
The Gunny will definitely be missed. Regarding the “shared cultural experiences,” they are sadly gone into history as well. If you think about the boot camp portion of FMJ, it was everybody – black, white, hispanic, smart, dull, thin, fat or whatever – all thrown together and given common experiences and a common cause. With modern identity politics and tribalization, each of those groups would be its own tribe, with all the other tribes being the Oppressive Enemy, or with all of the smaller tribes claiming greivances against the larger tribes.
The United States, since 2013 to Present, is equally as segregated now as it was in 1961.
Ironically, America reached “peak-integration” in the late 1980’s during the “Reagan Years”. From the mid-90’s to very early 2010’s, we stagnated, and have resegregated ourselves since Obama.
I saw FMJ *twice* right before I shipped off to MCRD San Diego in 1987. And…it was not too far off from the movie, I must say.
The one difference is that in the movie, recruits said “I.” In USMC boot camp when I was it (1989), we had to say “this recruit.”
This year is the first year I’m attending the NRAAM, and one of the people I was hoping to see there was the Gunny. He was a great representative for the shooting sports, and he’ll be hard to replace.
Given that Ermey was elected to his NRA BOD position in the 2017 election, and that he died after mail-in voting had concluded, what is the procedure for filling his seat?
Does it get filled by selecting the top runner-up from mail-in ballots? Does it get filled by a vote at the annual meeting? Does it remain vacant until next year’s election? Something else?
Stephanie Spika is an NRA Board member until the Annual Meeting. After that, it goes to the next highest vote getter in this election. He’s just not considered.