From time to time, I get some pretty interesting e-mail in response to my blog. Here's the latest example:
I received the following e-mail this morning:
I understand you are a bleeding heart liberal of the 4th ( so named for a reason) estate. But as an Amercian (are you?) You have to respect the office of the President (if not the man). So please tell me just what the @*&^ you have done for this Country to give you the right to ack the way you have?
signed a proud Vet
My response below the fold.
Here's my response:
Sir,
You should offer me the same respect you so offer your president. Dissent, in case you've forgotten, is an American value, too. As American as Mom, baseball and apple pie. While I respect the office of the president, I don't respect its current occupant. Nor do I think he has treated the office with much respect, either.
You're a vet, and I thank you for your service, but can you honestly tell me that this president has respected YOUR service? Of course he hasn't. Now I don't know which war you fought in, or whether you served during peacetime, but President Bush hasn't done a single thing since he's been in office that has been to the soldiers' advantage.
Sent them into a war based on predetermined notions and faulty evidence? Proven. Didn't listen to the generals? Proven. Didn't send the troops there with proper armor? Proven. Kept them there with the backdoor draft and taxed the Guard and Reservists? Proven. Served them contaminated water? Proven. Put them side-by-side with private contractors earning as much as eight times their pay? Proven. Didn't send them there with properly armored vehicles? Proven. Put them in the middle of what will soon become a civil war? Proven. Underfunded the Veterans Administration? Proven. Made soldiers wounded in Iraq pay for the body armor that was stripped from them on the battlefield when care was given? Proven. Insulted the service of Democrats who have run for office, while they themselves did everything in their power to avoid serving? Proven.
If that's what you call supporting the troops, I apologize.
And to answer your question, we Democrats believe that the rights and freedoms our armed forces have so bravely fought for throughout history extend to us as well, not just the Republicans. The other side should remember that fact. They should also remember that the best way to respond to factual arguments is with factual responses, not simply by calling the author un-American. Because that's not American at all, now is it?
For more great e-mails I've received, click
here and
here.