Yesterday I posted a diary calling George Bush "Mr. 3000" in honor of the American servicemen and women he's murdered. I won't call him anything else. I sure as hell won't call him "Mr. President."
In a heartfelt response, demetroula spoke of her own personal perspective as a Marine Mom. We should never, ever forget the sacrifices made by these families. Agree or disagree with the cause, but when their country called they answered.
And I don't believe we – by "we" I mean liberals, lefties, Democrats, progressives – do not forget. The Wingnuts may think we do, but as is so often the case, they are wrong. We support the troops. Here's how I support the troops:
- I support the troops living to see 25. Hell, I support the troops living to see legal drinking age. I support the troops living past their teens.
- I support the troops having girlfriends or boyfriends, making out on park benches, calling each other endlessly on the phone, getting jealous, having fights, breaking up and making up.
- I support the troops hugging their parents as they come home, buying their moms flowers on Mother's Day, going fishing with their dads, hearing that they're "too thin" and that they "need a haircut," and answering "When are you going to settle down?"
- I support the troops going to movies, watching bad TV, arguing over the clicker, and falling asleep on the couch.
- I support the troops being nervous on their wedding day, marching down the aisle, dancing awkwardly in front of their families, going off to honeymoon in Jamaica.
- I support the troops getting pregnant and suffering through morning sickness (or the sympathetic version thereof), having babies, holding their newborn child in their arms, fretting over them while they sleep, looking on wistfully as they climb on the bus for the first time, driving them to soccer games and movie nights, waiting for them to come home on a Friday night, watching as they graduate high school.
- I support the troops having careers, building lives, growing old and retiring.
- I support the troops, who stand on a wall and say "No one's going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch." I support the troops who give everything in defense of their country, even when the leaders of that country don't do the same for them.
- I support the troops living. I support the troops coming home.
So go ahead, Wingnuts and Rethugs, call me a liberal. Call me a bleeding heart, pablum-puking left-winger. Denigrate me and my "Volvo-driving, Hollywood values" cohort for our "weakness." Say whatever you need to say to help you justify yourselves and your Chief Destroyer. But answer me this: How do YOU support the troops?
(Note: A nod to the film "A Few Good Men," from whence the line above about "standing on a wall" comes.)