Extreme Makover Home Edition - It's Ok For a Man To Cry

So friends, I have a confession to make. I'm going to let you in on a weakness of mine. I watch Extreme Makeover-Home Edition on Sunday nights with my girlfriend.

Ok, that's not the big thing. Here it is: I cry every episode!

Now men, before you rush to make a judgement, hear me out! Now I know that men are allowed to cry for only a few situations, as listed here:

1. Your mom, wife, or child dies.

2. You injure yourself to the point that it needs amputation. Anything less is a flesh wound and you're not allowed to cry.

3. Your dog dies. (Go watch the movie "Old Yeller.")


Beyond that men aren't really allowed to cry. Not even when your team loses the world series for the umpteeth time. (Sorry, any man in Buffalo who cried when they lost the Super Bowl like five years in a row broke the Man Rules.) Ok, but now let's take a look at tonight's story.


1. The father is a Iraq War Veteran. (That's going get me because my sister is an Iraq War Veteran. There's still a chance she can be sent back.)

2. He is now in a wheel chair because of his war wounds.

3. The family had a car accident and he was further injuried. But worse, their daughter lost a kidney and their son, who slipped out of his seatbelt, and is now in a wheelchair as well.


Ok, men, this man is a veteran. He's a hero just for that. He's still trying to be a great dad. He's even more of a hero than that. Just watching so far, we see the wife is an incredible strong woman. She's a hero as well. These are the type of Americans you'd be proud to know. Their story is as sad as when Old Yeller died!!! ( One of the few times men are allowed to cry.) And then they build him this incredible wheelchair accessible house. They give him a wheelchair where in can stand up. At the end, when he goes outside and all the army soldiers that help build the house are there and he is able to salute them standing up. . .Man, it gets you right there!! There has to be an allowance in the Man Rules to cry for this.

If you don't cry from watching this, you have no soul!

And it isn't just this episode. One episode they had a cop who was injuried on the job and came home paralyzed. Can you stab me in the heart any stronger. My best friend is a police officer and I think of that happening to him. Then another show they gave a struggling family with four kids who played violin a music room and brand new violins for the kids. Could they pick another topic to give a musician like me tears? And then last weeks? It was a family where the father came down with cancer and died six months later and they did the house as a tribute to him. My uncle died suddenly from cancer in 1996. I cried pretty much the entire show.

Good thing my girlfriend has plenty of kleenex readily available.

It's things like this that give me hope in America. Seeing people in a community come together and help a family just stirs the soul with hope and good feelings.



Ok, I'm going to get on my soapbox for a second. Veterans' Affairs is a little pet issue for me. I think our war veterans should get the best healthcare available. . .for life! That whole fiasco at Walter Reed Hospital and the rest of the Veterans Hospital is absolutely unacceptable!! We need to fund VA care. Here are two links to two organizations that you can goto to learn how to give our veterans your support. The first link is to a organization that was featured on tonight's episode of Extreme Makeover Home-Edition. The second is where you can learn to how to help all the men and women coming home from today's conflicts.

Veteran Care is neither a Republican or Democrat issue. It's neither towards the left or the right. It's an American Issue. And it needs to be an American Obligation!

Adopt-A-Soldier-Now

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association