I commented on a friends page after she posted this, but Im not going to continue the back and forth there. No need to take over her page when my own will do fine for arguments. Firstly, many members of my family and friends have served in our various military forces. My youngest brother served with the Marines. It takes a hell of a lot of character to walk into a dangerous situation and away from the life you knew beforehand. But the internet outrage over this salute is just ridiculous. A history lesson: (1) we have civilian control of our military in this country. This was pretty much designed to prevent warriors from rising to power through might rather than through election kinda like what has happened in Egypt and Pakistan and other military-ruled countries. Thats right, our President is a civilian, not a member of the military. The military rules have them salute the President because he is the highest ranking official and the elected leader of the country they serve, however, rules for his salute back are the same as you and I. In fact, (2) the President saluting the military was generally not done before Regan did it and it was kind of a shitty thing then. Pissed a lot of people off because it looked a little too much like ole Prezzy was a military leader, not a civilian one. Apart from the President really needing to change precedent and just stop saluting the military members in general, people are outraged because its disrespectful. Lets talk disrespect in a world of 1984-style double think where you vote against your own personal liberties and societal best interests because _______ media source / political ideology / theology says to and the talking points have gotten so hyperbolic that truth is fiction and fiction is truth and it becomes impossible to separate the two and any variation from any of the media / political ideology / theology message is unpatriotic / blasphemous and is punishable by death (yeah, you trolling commentators. Ive seen your wishes of death to those who disagree with you as if human life has no value outside your soft-skulled world view) So, heres some unpatriotic bits that are fact in a free country: I dont have to stand for the flag or national anthem any more than I have to bow to a lower-case t or toward some Middle Eastern city. Soldiers are PAID employees of the Federal Government who are trained to act in unison to protect the United States national interest in service to a document (a good one, but still a sheet of paper) written over 200 years ago and amended several times since then... and national interest kind of changes based on whos in power and whos influencing those in power. Keep in mind, we havent defended our national borders from invasion for a very long time, yet weve been at war for 12+ years with no end in the foreseeable future. Theyre employees. They may be compensated horribly and their jobs are life threatening, but if youre wanting to look at true heroes, look to those people (like my father / brother / sister) who will rush into a burning building as a volunteer fireperson to save every life they can without compensation. Those people are heroes. Soldiers are doing their job. Lets stop this false idol worship. As for the anger over the salute... congratulations, you can read a headline and get angry. Why not get angry over unceasing, unfunded, state-sponsored murder that does nothing to defend the nation rather than over whether the dick-bag in charge salutes his employees properly? Why not get angry over the spending on violence and imperialistic oligarchy over the betterment of humanity? Why not get pissed that the language of liberty has been usurped and corrupted by Randian corporatists who are more than willing to limit personal freedoms so long as they serve their true lord - currency and power? I see more anger over the little bullshit pieces that mean absolutely nothing while the important things that would protect and encourage the spread of a value in the most important things (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) go largely ignored. Get a grip and let the small shit slide. Rant over. Feel free to let loose and prove how Im a godless-traitor-commie-satanic-... um... whatever names you have... who deserves to die now. washingtonpost/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/09/23/obama-salutes-a-marine-while-holding-a-cup/
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 16:59:02 +0000
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