While watching clips of the debate:
Boyfriend: I hate the way he holds his arm like that.
Me: That's from a war injury!!!
Boyfriend: Really?
Me: Yes!
Boyfriend: I still hate the way he holds it.
A few minutes later...
Me: *googling* Looks like he has degenerative arthritis in his shoulders.
Boyfriend: From the prisoner camp?
Me: I guess. I wish he would have died.
Boyfriend: We are horrible people.
Then we aborted 6 babies and went to bed. The aristocrats.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
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6 comments:
I am sorry to hear that John McCain has made you and your boyfriend less sensitive to war veterans.
Visit the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. and maybe you will have a change of heart. Americans should be thankful for these war veterans, we would live very different lives if they didn't put their lives on the line for this country.
I may not like a candidate but I do not wish any human being the agony of war and unfortunately I know to many people who are hoping and praying their children come home from Afghanistan and Iraq. They will take them maimed. And they choose to not even think of the possibility of their child becoming a prisoner of war.
I am sorry that McCain's war injury offends you, I guess you can only vote for handsome, well-dressed elites!
We're not really less sensitive. We just often make tasteless joke amongst ourselves and laugh about how tasteless we are. I assure you that we are still quite sensitive to the plight of war vets.
Glad to hear, you know us old people we get emotional about war veterans!
I'm glad you wrote this. I've been trying to get around to it. I actually don't give a shit about war vets, unless they joined the military to actually fight for our country. I have met, maybe, 1 in 10 people whose purpose was just that...the rest, signed up for the benefits and they could give a damn about the wonderful U.S. I'm tired of all the thanking of the vets. Why don't we just go around thanking everybody then? Thank you teachers for your service. Thank you garbage man for your service. Thank you nurses for your service. Thank you nail technicians for your service...
I'm not sure that I entirely agree with you, RJ, but I do feel like the term "war hero" is slung around a bit too much. Folks in the service sacrifice a lot (like time with their families and ability to live in one place for more than a year at a time) to do a shitty job that doesn't pay much, in addition to the possibility that they may be injured or die while doing their jobs (whereas teachers and sanitation workers have a lesser likelihood of such things occurring). So I can see the need for the "extra" thanks for those in the service.
BUT. "Hero" isn't always applied as it should be. For instance, McCain is not a fucking war hero simply because he was a POW. In fact, you should really check out vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com and read about all the shit he pulled in the service that got people killed. And how he got into the air force when he wasn't qualified (answer: daddy). And got better treatment as a POW because of daddy. If that isn't elitist, I don't know what is.
I don't mean to be totally unsympathetic to the cause...unjustifiably, that is. Believe me, I know from the inside out how folks in the service sacrifice...but it is really how women in the military sacrifice, and then the military turns around and shits on them. But that is another discussion.
What people forget is that they're signing up for the MILITARY, not volunteer service at the pet shelter. You WILL go to war if the opportunity presents itself. So I don't really feel that extra thanks is in order, unless, again I say, you signed up to defend your country, specifically. Now, that's admirable.
Teacher risk their lives with these bad ass teenagers, and sanitation and health care workers risk their lives with communicable diseases. I'd say that is pretty shitty, these days.
But I can agree, it is the word "hero" that's the major problem.
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