This is not one of my normal post on technology, social media, or anything like that. So forgive me, but please bear with me as this is very important to me, important to all of us.
I received and email today at work with a warning from military authorities in the Washington DC area for all military and other government personnel that commute in the area. I opened the attachment and was shocked at what I read.
Apparently there have been several incidents in the DC area, mostly in the Metro system where military personnel in uniform, traveling to or from work, have been verbally assaulted by individuals. These people have identified themselves as anti-war protesters and began screaming anti-war slogans, and sometimes racial slurs at them as they tried to get away. Some have even been followed outside of the station continuing the assault.
Is this where we have gone ? Is this what we have become ? It took us decades to shed the stigma that was cast post Vietnam against the returning military members who did nothing more than fight a war they did not start. They fought at the orders of the policy makers, and in the end fought their own war in their own country for decades to come.
So you can understand my utter shock when I read this memo. I spent 8 years in the military and have the utmost respect for those that continue to serve. These men and women choose this path for very different reasons but all have the same goal: to protect our country and way of living from foreign adversaries. They do not make the policy. They do not start wars. They simply follow those orders that are passed down to them. Some may agree with the policy and some may not, but all of them understand there obligations of the oath they took.
These people are simply trying to make their way, support their families, pay for college, get and education, and protect our way of life.
This is not about supporting the war. I understand if you do not. If that is the case, demonstrate against the ones who set the course, not the ones who obey and carry out that course. Go picket the White House as is your constitutional right. But for the love of God, support these men and women, do no scold them. They deserve much more than that. This behavior regresses our society in so many ways, I care not to even think about it.
