How The Blue States See The Military
Rochelle Reed, the Features Editor of the Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California, wrote a column about her shock when her son, Evan, enlisted in the army out of the blue:
"Two years ago in September, as my friends were sending their kids off to Berkeley or Stanford or UCLA, I drove my son, Evan, to our local recruitment center where he joined the U.S. Army. ...
"Never in a million years did I imagine my son would join the Army. Nor did Evan. In high school, he’d hang up on recruiters who called the house. He’d blurt, 'Get away from me!' to the ones who trawled the local hangouts. Our home was liberal Democrat and anti-war and now, at 21, he was a Michael Moore fan. The night before he left, he spent his time reading 'Stupid White Men.'"
It must be quite a shock for a Blue State Mom to spend all that time indoctrinating her kid, teaching him the military is stupid and Michael Moore is a genius, only to have it all go horribly, tragically wrong. Here he could have been safely smoking dope at Berkeley and being lectured by tenured hippie radicals on the evils of capitalism and he throws it all away to be a grunt infantryman. Kids!
"When I tell people that Evan has joined the Army, their reactions are almost always the same: their faces freeze, they pause way too long, and then they say, 'I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry for you.'
"I hang my head and look mournful, accepting their sympathy for the worry that lives in me. But as it dawns on them that Evan wasn’t drafted—Vietnam still clings to my generation—their expressions become quizzical, then disbelieving."
The shame of it all! Why didn't he become a drug dealer or something respectable instead of a warmonger razing villages in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan?
"I know what they’re thinking: Why in the world would any kid in his right mind choose to enlist when we’re in the middle of a war?"
Why? Why? Why? Why would anyone risk their life for their country? It's a pretty puzzling riddle for the Me Generation of the Baby Boomers.
"I begin telling them the story, desperate to assure them it wasn’t arrogant patriotism or murderous blood lust that persuaded him to join. What finally hooked him was a recruiter’s comment that if he thought the country’s role in Iraq was so screwed up, he should try to fix it."She's got a point. My friends in the Air Force all signed up for the arrogant patriotism and murderous blood lust. You know who you are. Me, I signed up for the chow. I LOVED those C-rations, especially the beans & weiners. And the boned chicken, c'est magnifique!
"And on a deeper, personal level, he signed up hoping that somehow the Army would help him find what young men these days often try to fill with alcohol, drugs and video games: a sense of purpose."Alcohol, drugs, video games, or the army. For lefty moms, the world is full of bad choices for their sons.
Thanks to Best Of The Web
Labels: Rochelle Reed
posted by Steverino at 3:48 PM
4 Comments:
Yeah right, like you Air Force types ever ate C-rats. Not unless the 4 star d-fac burned down, anyway.
Sad to see that joining the Army is a tragic decision these days. It used to be that parents were proud of their kids for serving.
Yup, I ate C-rats and I must admit I liked them. Of course, I never had them as a steady diet like you ground pounders did. Perhaps they would have gotten old after a while. I only had them in survival school and on survival exercises out in the South Korean boonies. Perhaps the ambiance sharpened my appreciation for them, but I found them quite tasty.
And the Long Range Patrol rations, the freeze-dried ones that you added water to, those were exquisite. The first time I had one, a tear came to my eye, I kid you not. Of course, that was the first full meal I had been offered in a week of survival school and I had lost 16 pounds running around the mountains. That was the first time I ever tasted croutons. It was like a religious awakening.
Joining the military is still celebrated in America, just not by lefties living in the big blue cities on the coasts who want to outsource national service to the conservatives. They just want the benefits of America, none of the icky responsibilities.
sad that it makes sense to her that she needs to make excuses and/or somehow justify that her son has joined the army. and while certainly don't wish it on any mother and hope it does not happen, if her son were to die, even a hero's death, i see another cindy sheehan in the making here...
Ditto on the LRPs! I can't remember what I had for supper two nights ago, but I'll never forget that freeze-dried spagetti at Spokane.
As for joining the military, what other country can take a barefoot, crapping-in-an-outhouse, snotty-nosed piece of white trash and put him in a Phantom cruising up and down the East German buffer zone? What a country!
Post a Comment
<< Home