I was set to write a very different diary this morning, until FOX News linked to a blog I posted in February defending Michelle Obama's statement: "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."
Obviously, the people over on the FOX forums are a little slow with the whole internets business, or they would've found this post seven months ago. Regardless, I have been hammered in the comments section of my own blog for supporting Michelle. While some Republican trolls resort to name-calling, a well-written post by a veteran was the one that affected and infuriated me the most:
"Before most of you were born my friends and I were scraping mekong leeches off and fighting insurgents in a little backwater called Vietnam. I was there to find and hopefully rescue men like Mr. McCain, so I needn’t go deeper into that. What you kids know about torture and warfare is infinetesmal.
(cont'd)
You spend a great deal of time and energy on convincing others you know how bad it is, but you really haven’t got any idea what you are talking about beyond what someone has told you about it. I don’t think you realize that America has been putting men in harm’s way for the better part of two centuries, and that those men are all that have stood between freedom and the lack of it for not only America but the rest of the world. You have no idea what it is like to have a malevolent military presence in your town that is there to take everything you have. That is why we go and fight to defend those who can’t defend themselves. This undercurrent of cynicism and negativity that people are indoctrinated with in the academic world ignores the fact that a lot of people were killed and others wounded to provide the freedom to pursue that line of reasoning. To be certain these are horrible subjects, but to a man every veteran I have ever come across would do again what they did in the name of freedom if it became necessary, even if it only helped one person. Not all of these people were volunteers, but we were raised in a culture that taught duty and service are more important than self. Apparently, not everyone feels that way, but that is the beauty of this free country we live in.
You can’t judge everything in the world based on what your american college education has taught you because the world doesn’t work that way. Until you have seen how people in other parts of the world live you really haven’t got any idea other than the utopian image that has been cultivated in your minds by professors and what your very sheltered life in the USA has provided you..."
My response is this.
Thank you for serving our country so bravely in Vietnam.
However, I take serious issue with a number of your statements, such as: "Until you have seen how people in other parts of the world live you really haven’t got any idea other than the utopian image that has been cultivated in your minds by professors and what your very sheltered life in the USA has provided you."
This is where YOUR generation is overstepping. You don’t know ANYTHING about my life, the lives of my friends, my family. I’m the granddaughter of an immigrant and two veterans. I’ve watched a family business go under... no bail outs there. I am still paying off my college education, like Barack Obama so recently did. In college, I studied military history, specializing in World War II and Vietnam era combat and foreign policy. I deal daily with a severely painful chronic illness. I have six friends serving in Iraq (two who just returned and swear they will NEVER vote Republican again).
I don’t need you to preach utopia to me. I’ve been all over the world, I’ve volunteered in inner city New York, Baltimore, Chicago. When I was in college, I worked THREE jobs.
I am a patriot, a good American, with or without military service, with or without the pledge of allegiance. What many people fail to realize is that there are more important things about patriotism than singing songs, removing your cap at a baseball game, saying the pledge of allegiance, and wearing a flag pin. Service, be it military or charitable, is American. Compassion toward others, especially those who don’t have it as good as you do, is American. FREEDOM is American. Freedom to NOT say the pledge of allegiance or practice the same religion or speak your mind.
If you asked George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or FDR which was more important, supporting the principals in our Constitution (and this is where I like to point out how fervently pro-Second Amendment Barack Obama is, one of the issues where I disagree with him, respectfully) or saying the pledge of allegiance, which do you think they would support? Having studied all four men in my "Utopian" collegiate years, I can tell you they would support the later. John McCain has decided that, even though he endured torture, he’d rather not do away with using it on POWs who haven’t even been charged with a crime.
Barack Obama’s compassion, level-head, intellect, and fresh perspective are good not just for America, but for the world, which has been wrong by our insistent need to invade or control countries that harbor resources we need.
Nothing pisses me off more than people who presume to know how easy and paradisaical your life is because they think they have it worse. I would never tell a stranger, "you don't know suffering." I would never tell a stranger they were less of a patriot than I am, because what the hell do I know?
I'm white, but my grandfather isn't, and my mother has told me the names he was called and how much harder he felt he had to work to get something resembling equal treatment. Today, he is a beloved figure in his community because of his compassion, generosity, and penchant for learning. He's a Democrat, of course. He's a brave man. He's a wonderful man and a patriot and a great American. Like Michelle Obama, he has many reasons to love this country and some reasons not to love this country. He has seen it all. Complaining isn't his style... working hard is his style. He's also a veteran of World War II.
I think he's a better American than John McCain. I also think he'd make a better president than John McCain, even though he's a decade older than the Maverick.
Don't let ANYONE tell you, Republican or otherwise, that because you don't salute the flag or have military experience that you aren't as patriotic as anyone else. Commitment to the principals our country was founded on--liberty and justice FOR ALL--that is what makes a patriot. Some people fight for liberty and justice through military service. Others do so through community organizing, volunteerism, Peace Corps, pro bono work. No two people serve their country exactly alike. Some die for it, some shed blood for it, some have scars like John McCain on this outside of their bodies and some have scars on the inside. I won't pretend to understand what prejudice feels like, but I can't imagine it fills your heart with glee and gladness towards the country that until relatively recently allowed its citizens to be treated with such hatred.
I'd rather be that girl who treats everyone around her with kindness and is a very vocal advocate for First Amendment rights than that girl who can say the pledge of allegiance really well or knows all the words to "America the Beautiful."