But setting aside the negative....
Thank you retired Vets for your Service, and to those actively serving, as well as to those soon to be old enough who will one day themselves serve.
Vets have assured this country came into existence, kept it existing, and continue to do so. I served myself now many years ago and it always meant so much when you felt respect from civilians when finding out you are in the service.
When I was in the Air Force I very seldom had anyone show they felt any kind of appreciation in my serving. I was lucky. I got neutrality. I came after the disdain the military were held in during Vietnam.
I was also enheartened after Iraq when I saw people start to think well of our military and even to get into a habit of saying "thank you for your service" to our Vets. In realizing by that time even if we were against a war, we weren't against our sons and daughters of our nation who were fighting and dying, regardless. We may disagree with those who send our Vets to war, but it is their duty to follow orders, not decide whom to fight.
Take our thanks in all you have done for us and all you have had to go through on our behalf. Thanks from those who don't even have the substance or integrity to support you after having sent you into harm's way, people who really don't have the right to speak to you or even to hold your coat.
Thanks then to from the rest of us.
I'd like to say that America has always supported her Vets but we know that isn't really true.
The thing about that is... I have high hopes we are beginning to mature and evolve not only to a place where our peacekeepers are just that. But also that we will soon learn to send one into harm is to pick them up when they fall, to carry them home to safety, help them to heal and feel good about themselves, then send them off into the life they were fighting for and sustained with their lives, finally to enjoy those lives in their well deserved and continuing pursuit of happiness.
All the best to you our Vets!
Cheers to you all!
That being said...now a few comments that are pro people, pro military, con greed and con corporate purposes for war:
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| "Thank you for your military?" Regardless, we do still serve, so I'll be happy to accept "Thank you for your service" from anyone. I understand what they mean. |
I get that, I really do. It's good they speak out their thoughts, it's good people review their own thoughts on this though too, if we have military feeling this way.
But he's missing the point in the same way conservatives miss the point of legal abortions. The other side of this is we can return to a much worse situation as in the Vietnam era mentality of "you served and you're scum for it".
I agree war is used for the wrong reasons and far too often. It's a process and hopefully we're growing up to a point we won't have wars at some point in the near future.
Perhaps people have to do what then to make him happy? Change their shallow phrasing, considerations and appreciations of a military person's sacrifices in having been in the military?
Especially when they haven't been.
Those in the military who never see battle are still sacrificing a part of their lives in stepping outside of civilian life and putting up with the military life and career. It's a pain, trust me. Those who see battle give up so much more, and those who die give up the ultimate sacrifice.
But it's better to accept the appreciation people have for your sacrifices than the opposite in being spit upon.
We have begun to see it's not the soldiers, but the commanders, the politicians and the nation as a whole who are to blame for wars, for these sacrifices.
I agree there is reason to be bitter in living through the shear terror of battle, especially in many of them where you cannot even consider your possible death and be proud but wonder why you are even there in the first place, for what?
I also get it that the military will always look down on civilians to some degree. It's the nature of the job. You go through hell for the civilians. No matter how good things are I suspect it may always be that way. They called us in the military the "Perfect Society". We were like civilians but better, more controlled, more attentive, more just about everything, but happy typically. But it's the same thing in civilians life, it's just that it's so much more obvious in the military. Everything is enhanced. They are a microcosm of our nation, enhanced.
But when someone tells you they are thanking you for your service, see it for what it is. See the positive in it.
Guilt, maybe. Appreciation, honor, or at very least in a shallow rote repeating of the words, an indication that you are not held to blame for society's wrongs. Take it as you do in battle and understand, ignorance is not malice. And it could all be much worse for you that it is. That's not much of a reward. But it goes hand in hand with military service.
I do appreciate his comment that if you got spit on at least you knew they had an opinion. And I know when I say the words to a vet, I understand what I am thanking them for. Maybe if they know me and my history they know I know. Maybe it's just because I lived through the Vietnam debacle but when someone now finds I had been in the military and thanks me for my service,
I do almost get misty eyed because I've experienced the opposite, and this, even vacuous commentary is still better in my mind, than everyone hating you for your service.
Well that was kind of a downer. So let's end on this:
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| http://www.vetsprobono.org/ |
A program providing Representation at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
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