Is it just me??
Am I the only one?
Or do some of you out there feel it too?
I'm talking about the feeling I get when I'm sent the emails, one after another, day after day, and sometimes several in the same day. The emails telling me about how proud these people are of our Soldiers and Sailors and Marines who are serving in some faraway hell-hole, laying their lives on the line for our way of life.
I don't think you quite understand yet.
These people feel that if we don't support 100% of what our sometimes clueless leaders do, and where they send these young warriors, then we are lesser Americans, less patriotic than they. They apparently don't understand just how much I really do support our troops, including my own son who just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq a few weeks back.
But then maybe it is I who doesn't understand.
I don't understand the self-righteousness of these people, whose own sons and daughters are too busy going to college or making their first million or simply drinking beer and making babies to be a part of our fighting forces. I don't understand how they can see me as being less patriotic than they are, when it's my own son, my firstborn, flesh of my flesh, who volunteered and filled that spot in our military, so that THEIR son or daughter didn't have to "waste" a year of their life, a year apparently better spent climbing the ladder in corporate America.
Oh, I know very well that my son volunteered to join the military. And I know that my son has made a choice, the same as their son or daughter. But I don't understand why these people can't see this in the same context as the relative commitment of the chicken and the pig in their Egg McMuffin in the morning. Their situation is comparable to the chicken, who is merely involved in bringing you your breakfast, whereas the pig is committed.
So I guess it's all right, then, if these folks look upon my son--and, by extension, me--as the pigs when it comes to supporting our troops...as long as they accept that they deserve to be called the chickens that they are.
I think I've earned the right, through my son's service to our country, to resent the implication of their self-righteous "patriotism" via email...as their own sons and daughters are too busy, too important, or too valuable to corporate America to defend our nation. In my point of view, these people don't have a dog in this fight. They DO have a stake in the outcome of the war in Iraq, but only to the same extent that all Americans do. If they had a son or daughter who'd served, them I might be open to the idea that they have a right to preach patriotism to anyone else.
Now I have friends and relatives who DO have sons and daughters who are serving in the military, and who have served in Iraq. Oddly enough, they are the ones who DON'T feel the need to preach patriotism. NO, I only get those self-righteous emails from the folks whose sons and daughters are too busy to get involved in the military, and who therefore [in MY view] have the LEAST reason to preach patriotism.
Am I out of line to feel this way?
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No offense Buzz, but I can't help but think it is just you.
I have tried to follow the path you took that seems to have worked you into such a passionate attack on people who do not have sons and/or daughters in the military and in Iraq. I can only guess that you must be getting e-mails that are much different than the "support our troops" type e-mails that get passed on to me.
The ones I receive usually show pictures of soldiers sleeping in foxholes in the sand. Some may show wounded soldiers, or soldiers crying over the loss of a buddy. And each of them simply asks that I support our troops.
I have never received an e-mail that asked me to support Bush, or Cheney, or Rumsfeld, or the idiotic, egomaniacal decision that got us into this mess in the first place. I have never received an e-mail that made me believe that the sender was being self-righteous or that I was less of a person than they because neither of my sons are in the military. I never feel self-righteous when I always pass along these e-mails because they only ask that I support our troops.
For me, that's easy. I was never in the military, but my father served in New Guinea and North Africa in WWII. He received a medical discharge because of the malaria he got in New Guinea. His brother was the first resident of Crawford County killed in WWII when his ship was torpedoed by a Japanese sub. They never recovered his body. My uncle, on my mother's side, came home from the Korean war with shrapnel in his body; 3 fingers missing from one hand; scarred on his face, arms, and legs; unable to work, and addicted to morphine. My brother was in Vietnam in 1966 - 1967. By the grace of God, he came home alive, but emotionally scarred.
I know that my sons didn't chose to not go into the military because they were too busy, too important, or too valuable to corporate America. They didn't stay out of the military because they thought it would waste a year or so of their time. They both considered the military and both asked my opinion. I told them both that I would respect whatever they decided to do, but MY recommendation was to stay out because I saw what war did to my dad, my uncle, and my brother.
Does my recommendation make me less patriotic than you? As far as I'm concerned - NO. Does it make me less patriotic than any parent that has a son or daughter in Iraq or has lost a son or daughter in Iraq? Again, my answer is, NO. If you believe it makes me a "chicken" because I wanted to protect my sons from the horrors of war, then so be it.
As to the Egg McMuffin analogy. I don't believe the pig committed to McDonald's by volunteering and the chicken is not merely "involved"; they are making the sacrifice of their unborn children.
Do I, to quote you, "have a dog in this fight?" My answer is, YES. YES, because I have co-workers with sons or daughters in Iraq. And I have good friends that I greatly respect, like you, with sons and daughters in Iraq. And my answer is YES because I am an American and there are American men and women fighting in Iraq.
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