I truly love that we have the freedom to voice our opinions.  The fact we can sport bumper stickers on our vehicles proclaiming our love for something or our disdain for another.  That is part of our First  Amendment right ( for those hating the constitution, you sure practice this right a lot).  I would love to have a few bumper stickers that say, our government sucks, its in the toilet and we allow it to happen by repeatedly putting morons in positions of power when we should get back to a more sovereign society governed by the people, not by bureaucratic assholes.  We should have back the freedoms we once had  and make BIG BROTHER to get the hell out of our pockets and our lives.

But what got me today was when I saw a group on facebook titled “Don’t Support our troops”, I was quite appalled as to the one-sided message portrayed.  Yes it is true that in every bunch, you will find a bad apple so to speak, and something or someone or a group of people whose actions are abhorrent and unacceptable.  I do not like the war nor do I agree with what has transpired in it.  I do however have first-hand knowledge of what good has happened to the people in the war torn countries that beg for our help also.

The site states this

LIBERTY IS EMBARRASSED!

The goal of this page is to point out that slogans such as “Support the Troops” are merely Soviet-style propaganda. Their purpose is to short-circuit the thinking process and enforce conformity while stifling freedom.

Well isn’t that site doing the same thing?  Do we not all post propaganda in one facet or another?  Where do we draw the line between fact and fallacy and hate?

In liking the statement “Don’t Support the Troops”  does that include our state militias founded in the 1700’s known as the National Guard?  You know.. your neighbor, your store clerk, you hotel manager, the person who helps neighbors and friends in need.  The one who at a moments notice of a disaster, says good-bye to their families and heads out to protect and serve their state from natural disasters repercussions, are they to be hated and unsupported also?

Unless we have forgotten, there are always bad people everywhere!  We call the cops when our house has been broken into.. yet half the cops are crooked.  We support Wal-Mart by shopping there, when they have a record of abusive employer practices and sell things made at the hands of people in foreign countries forced to work in horrid conditions, such as sweat shops owned by drug smugglers, so that we may save a buck.

The point I am trying to make is before we decide to not support a soldier think… get off your lazy ass next time there is a major flood and spend weeks in hot torrential rains and substandard conditions and fill sandbags so a neighborhood may have less flooding, next ice storm when a small community has not enough volunteers in the area willing to help seniors get out of their homes so they don’t die, you get your coats on and go door to door, rescuing them and sleeping in cold trucks and eating 1 meal a day.. and let my family stay home.

So before choosing what to support and not what to support…. think of BOTH sides  Because I sat and looked at that site and was really surprised and wow….  now I know what people think of my relatives… because most of them serve or have served in the Armed forces.

I do not take offense to those that choose to not support our troops, that happens when we have some of them doing things that are revolting.  But what about those that are doing good?  Do we hate all because of a few?

©Copyright protected 2013: JD, NWU Local 1981

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