Sunshine Patriots
Sometimes I feel like such a dope.
Had I known I could demonstrate my fidelity and loyalty to, and my deep and abiding love of, my country by just slapping a sticker on my car or a pin on my lapel … I could have skipped FIFTEEN years of uniformed service (between active duty and the reserves).
Where the hell was Fox News when I needed them? A young, impressionable kid thinking patriotism was about actually serving my country …. at 17 years old, I thought that meant enlisting. (and I would have, too, but the ROTC scholarship came through and I somehow made it through OCS and started out as a second looey instead of a prive. No one was more surprised than my dad.)(But I digress.)
Fifteen years. Desert Storm. Mogadishu. Damn, I was stupid. I could have just gotten a pin and wore it around.
True story: One month after 9/11 the local Chamber of Commerce held their Fall expo. We had a booth (not that we got any bidness from it - this was when we were still exploring all the marketing angles.)(sorry, more digression). I was there all fancied up in suit and tie, meeting and greeting. Just after the local nursrey came by with a free potted geranium, some guy came up with a handfull of pins and asked why I wasn’t wearing one - like I was some kind of freak. My first impulse, I must admit, was to punch him. Instead I just asked whether a dozen years of uniformed service was sufficient … or did I really need the pin?
Most days now I feel like punching someone - starting with Bill O’Reilly and working on down the list to George Stepincrapolous.
Fifteen years. But it’s the pin that matters.
22 April 2008 at 3:40 pm
I TOTALLY hear you, although my “investment” was only 8 years enlisted. Here in Minnesota it was wether or not you had a “Support the Troops” sign in your yard. (digressing, it was a bit hard to turn down when the wife of a Model of honor winner is passing them out…and is a member of my wife’s congregation…
But there are far too many people who think that a “support the troops” sign suddenly makes them a member of the military. (I can’t roll my eyes enough.)
22 April 2008 at 3:41 pm
That should read Medal of Honor…Sigh.
23 April 2008 at 11:00 am
It seems that over the past 7 years, an American flag on your car or a “Support Our Troops” bumper sticker has come to mean “Support the war in Iraq and George Bush.” Why hasn’t anyone come up with a bumper sticker that says “I support our troops but not the war in Iraq.”
Wearing a flag pin doesn’t make a person a patriot. Working to improve your community or your country does.
29 April 2008 at 5:42 am
all i ever wanted to do was serve,but they don’t take asthmatics,so this comment may be skewedby my desire . but after the vietnam era and the way many people thought of veterans, seeing people waving flags and cheering troops is kind of refreshing.
thank you all for serving .