I have to be honest here, your response really ticked me off. Why? I personally felt patronized by your comment. It clearly was a rebuttal to my comment about not supporting Congress.
Let me get a couple of things straight. You need to realize that I have given all but 10 years of my life to the military. You've been a wife a mere 20 years? Congrats! Kudos. I'm 40. My whole life up until 10 years ago, has been a reactive effect of being raised as a Marine Corp. military brat. Who I am, the parent I am to my own child, the daughter I'm not any longer, my fears, my political views, everything has been influenced by that horrific war. You've given 20 years, please, I gave my childhood. I gave my teenage years, and I am still giving to that damn Marine Corp., and I wasn't given the luxury of choice, like you were given. You chose to be a military wife. I didn't choose that life. I was born into it. Yes, I am bitter.
I have been woken to knives at my throat, age 7. I was choked at the age of 5 to the point of unconsciousness. Thank god my mother was a nurse to revive me. I have been tackled so hard that I literally got the pee knocked out of me, age 7. I have been beaten to a bloody plump. My head slammed into countertops. Shaken, to the point of temporary blindness, my index finger slice off to the bone protecting myself (age 9), and I had had over 46 snitches in my head by the time I was 10. 10. So I know exactly what it is like living with a military man, and Bronze star recipient to boot. So don't assume that people with opinions, don't know what it's like to be apart of the military. That's one of the reasons why I felt patronized. Understand? And, the sick thing about all this people..., in Deerlodge, MT in the early 1970s they didn't have offices like the Department of Family/child services. Kids like me, we were screwed. Heck, my dad was a war hero. No cop in my small town was going to arrest him on child abuse charges. Are you kidding me? That would be unpatriotic. They just didn't do that back then. So when you were just getting into the military, I was already a veteran of the Marine corp family life, for 20 years by then. And, never once did I receive a paycheck for my services. At least you get money for yours. But us kids- nothing.
"Stand your post." Your comment, "Stand your post." Have you ever had to do that? Stand your post? Oh my god, how many times I have been told to stand my post soldier. Funny thing is, I'm no soldier. Do you know how hard it is to stand your post at the age of 4, making sure that your nose never touched the wall, even though you were centimeters from it. Age 4. Stand your post. They could take that post they're standing on, and shove it up their tush for all I cared at the age of 4. And, that's one of my first memories as a kid.
A man in my intimate family has served in every American conflict or war since the Great War, when my g.g.grandfather enlisted into the Army as a medic. Served his time in France. Came back mean. Just like my grandfather. Just like my dad. Mean, I tell you- evil. Pure evil. Yeah, so I know a thing or two about standing your post.
Now I do value the opportunities that our fore fathers set before us. I think I have given enough to the military whether people like you assume so or not, and have earned my right to an opinion. Despite whether or not it's a popular one. Nobody has ever asked me if I was okay with the military stealing my father away. Nobody ever asked me if I was okay not having a productive home life. Personally, as a military brat I was thrilled when Nick Lucas asked this question on Patriotism. But seriously, what would someone like me know about the military, with my talk about Congress and all, right? Sure, I guess I could understand that. Well, I was born on foreign soil in Spain, because my father was not allowed to return to the USA until 1973. Why, he needed more deprogramming. Now what's wrong with that picture? Deprogramming? You don't deprogram a Bronze star war veteran with two purple hearts to boot. You don't. Sorry, but it is impossible. And, the wow factor of this whole entire rant..., I am just one of thousands of children effected by the horrors of war. Millions even, I don't know. But I remember in my kindergarten class, there were other kids like me. Scared out of their wits, bruised both emotionally and physically.
Personally, I would not make a good soldier. I have had enough American warfare to last a thousand years. I am a lover, not a fighter and I would probably shoot my own damn foot off given the opportunity. Guns freak me out. Maybe having them pointed at my chest by my demented father had something to do with that, but, still I hate them. With that said, I don't believe in this current government. I don't trust their judgment. It is not in the best interest of the people. Maybe if soldiers like your husband, would get their heads out of the sand, and heed Thomas Jefferson's words..., the American people might have a fighting chance. But no..., your husband, my father, no questions asked. You said it best, "stand your post!", with an amen too even.
Well someone needs to start questioning them or our lives are seriously in trouble. Freedoms are no longer a commodity in America people. Did your husband sign up for military run dictatorship? Did he? What is he fighting for? Freedom? Whose freedom, I ask you then? Mine? Yours? Well he is not fighting for the freedoms of the American people. If he was, they why isn't our American soldiers backing it's citizens and doing something about the chaos in Washington? Banks are closing, retirement savings are gone, people can no longer have opinions without Big brother lurking in, food lines are up, children are dying because they have no health care, unemployment is out of control, and the housing market is in the crapper. So you tell me, who is it again that our soldiers are fighting for? Our freedom? Freedom for what? Over taxation perhaps? No, no soldiers helping us out with that either. The American people are alone, and our soldiers are far from home. I find that troublesome. Especially, when I read in this little forum thread that people think it is okay to treat American citizens as if they are all dope smoking children. Well excuse me, I am no child. I don't need my government coming into my home, taking me away for however long they like, without reason or a warrant. No-sorry, I'm funny like that. What is even scarier, is that was the exact same mentality used on American born citizens in the 1940s, when Americans with Japanese descendants were sent to AMERICAN concentration camps. So, sue me if I ask questions, don't stand my post, and wouldn't lay down my life for a country, broken by the very people making all the decisions in Washington.
I value every American life that has been lost, and so I vote in every election. I play Taps on my trumpet every Memorial Day service, and I have volunteer at the VA Hospital in Columbia, MO in their "No Veteran Dies Alone" hospice foundation. I proudly do that for the American soldiers. But to die, because Congress has authorized another crazy police action mission against Muslim women and children, no. I don't honestly think I could. If anything, my PTSD dad has taught me the value of life.
0
