I was over at Penigma's blog, just a few minutes ago. There is a post on there, thanking U.S. military veterans on this Memorial Day.
I can only speak for this veteran.
First; Thank you.
I am a veteran but I'm still alive. I appreciate that people want to thank U.S. soldiers, sailors, wingnuts* and marines. Please do it on Veteran's Day. Memorial Day is for the fallen, either in battle as a result of wounds from battle or after their live is otherwise over. That's just my take, ymmv.
Second; I don't need praise or thanks for something that I did almost 50 years ago.
I enlisted in the AF (prolly one of the handful of genuinely thought out decisions I made in my life) and was lucky/smart enough to know that the AF sent far fewer troops into combat zones than the Army or Marines. I don't do large steel boats, very well.
I'm not a fighter (nor much of a lover--kvetching, though, I'm good at that, DAMNED GOOD!) so a non-killing job was good for me and my country. I don't need to be thanked for that, although I would not insult a person doing so--unless of course they are some political stuffed-shit** or a wingnut v 2.0 who is using the occasion to make political hay*** EXPESHLY if they're chicken hawks.
What I DO require from my country is that they honor the commitments made to me and other veterans in return for our service. Nothing more, nothing less.
It appears that the GOP is going to use the Phoenix VA scandal to push for privatization of the VA medical centers. If you want to do me and every veteran who uses or might use those services (just about everybody who has worn a uniform for the required time is potentially a client) make sure that your congress critters are aware of this AND opposed to it. And send that fucking asshole John Boehner a personal "Go FUCK Yourelf". Boehner did serve, sorta, eight weeks in he got an honorable discharge for a bad back. He looks remarkably good (although it appears that he could have been the original "Agent Orange" if he had gone into, say, the CIA). So, don't diss him. Thank him for his eight weeks of service--THEN tell him to go fuck himself.
Thank you, dear reader**** for taking the time to come and visit my blog.
Resume the parade of stuffed-shits (not a politician) with their faux patrioligiousness on Main St. USA! USA!! USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* That term was used back in the early 70's by folks who disparaged USAF as "non-soldiers". I'm sorry it was stolen by people to use as a descriptor for the unhinged loonz that populate the ReiKKKwing of MurKKKan politics. Oh, btw, you guys that didn't like me and thought I was NOT a "REAL soldier"? Fuck you, very much.
** NOT a typo.
*** Digressing for a moment from my current rambling incoherency. GOPinheadz like building strawmen and throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. I'm not sure if they're aware that bricks can be made using straw and dung (Source: http://inhabitat.com/one-brick-two-bricks-lets-use-poo-bricks/). Indeed, I like to think of the modern GOPeabaggist Party of being built like a shitbrick house.
**** And yes, "reader", I know that I have "grate blog with much good idea for my think about." and I'm rushing out, first thing tomorrow to open a bank account so's I can send you some routing numbers and passwords to allow you to give me millions of dollaz so's I can buy Viagra at a HUGE discount that will only be small when viewed next to my enormous jo--, well, you know what I'm saying.
3 comments:
Hey, democommie - you make a necessary point. Memorial day is for seeing dead people (in our hearts and minds) to borrow a phrase from a movie.
Which is why I expanded on that in my other post.
But everyone who entered the military DOES deserve thanks - no matter how long ago their service. Every single person who went into the armed forces, either by enlistment or draft, did so knowing they were potentially putting their lives on the line, that it could be any one of them who found themselves in a conflict - perhaps a conflict they knew was in progress, or maybe a conflict that developed after they were in the military.
THAT deserves a thank you -- and on BOTH Veterans and Memorial Day. That 'thank you', imho - or at least I hope - does not diminish the respect or honor accorded our war dead. If anything, I should probably add in some form of gratitude for those civilians who died alongside our armed forces personnel, assisting them and supporting them.
So - dear Democommie - take the thanks, you DO deserve it!
John Boehner served 8 WEEKS? Give the guy a damn medal. #sarcasm
Yup, 56 days of the kind of hell that no man should have to go thr..., Oh,wait, I and millions of others did and most of us don't run around talkin' bout MurKKKan exceptionalism.
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