Here's a real story. Today in the City Market in Hotchkiss, Colorado, I overheard a rather loud conversation in the produce aisle between a City Market employee and a youngish male shopper. The gist of it was that the military was a great career, except that the shopper said he wouldn't serve while President Obama was commander-in-chief (of the armed forces).
Amazingly, I restrained myself from calling the young man's patriotism and understanding of what it is to be an American and to serve your country into question, although my heart started pounding.
I spent 8 years being mortified to have George W Bush as our President, but he was the commander-in-chief, and I expect the military to honor that. Without a commitment to the civilian control of the military, we are just another Egypt waiting to happen.
Should I have called this guy out in the produce aisle? I actually felt like a coward when I realized I had just let it all pass, as though what the young man was saying was somehow acceptable.