In my last diary, I requested readers consider donating to an organization that was providing services to veterans having problems adjusting back to civilian life. At about that same time, a fund-raising campaign was started to come to the rescue of Memories Pizza, a business which had proclaimed they would refuse to cater a gay wedding. I would like to think this is not the final tally of this competition. But it seems at the moment, that discrimination is winning -- and it isn't even a contest.
Is it actually fair to compare these two fundraising efforts?
On one side, a business which had never been asked to cater a gay wedding goes out of its way to proclaim they would not under any circumstances undertake such an effort, and then has to close its doors because accusations of bigotry makes the business owners uncomfortable and creates a temporary financial hardship for them.
On the other, volunteer veterans of a foreign military mission who, after being separated from family and friends on multiple occasions for months at a time while being the targets of bullets and bombs aimed with the intention of killing them, and being asked in the name of the American people to kill in return, desperately need some help being able to psychologically survive once they return to civilian life.
Is this a question of who is more deserving of financial assistance?
Is it an indictment of a communications media focused only on the next shiny object grown bored with retelling the ongoing story of veterans in need?
Is it a reflection of who in this country has the most financial resources and what groups and causes they choose to prioritize?
Whatever the answers, I do not think the consequences reflect who we are as a country.
At least I sure as hell want to think they do not.