I am from the south. Born and raised, and lived the majority of my years so far in Georgia. Much of my family is from what you might call the really DEEP south, Alabama mostly. So it might be no surprise that my Facebook timeline is frequently exploding with pictures and messages of patriotic gratitude for our troops. And in the last few years there has been this trend in such posts to include passive aggressive judgmentalism along the lines of "I bet most people won't repost this, let's see who will", often in less-friendly terms.
So, in short, here's why I wont repost your soldier pics, beyond the fancy orange whipped cream...
Now, this has been going on for some time now, at least since I started actively perusing Facebook two or three years ago. The reason I'm writing this now is that I noticed from one of my Facebook friends showing a pair of soldiers carrying a wounded third soldier between their soldiers. Accompanying this image is the text "Please excuse us...we are on our way to thank Bruce Jenner for being so courageous."
Now before I begin to rant, I want to state without any reservation, I am 100% supportive of our troops, and grateful for the sacrifices they and their families make. I grew up in a small town, many of my high school friends were in JROTC, many went on to join the military. Many people in my family served, including my father, an Army Ranger for years. I have the utmost respect and admiration for people who sign away basically their entire lives to serve their country.
However, courage is not a universal constant. Its not all things to all people, all the time. To call one thing courageous is not to inherently diminish the courageousness in someone else. Its quite easy for one to believe the courage of our armed servicemen and women, and still think that Caitlyn Jenner is brave for coming out so publicly.
What's worse, though, is the sheer disingenuous nature of these posts much of the time. True intentions are dictated by actions, not by words. It is one thing to shout your praises of our troops to the high heavens. It is quite another to back those words up with actions.
So many of the people who post these messages are the same people I see railing against "liberals, democrats, progressives, etc." and voting for their friendly neighborhood republican.
Surely the best way to give thanks to our troops for their service is to ensure that they are treated fairly when they return home. Surely we should be thanking them by making sure that they have access to medical WHENEVER they need it, access to counseling they need, access to work, education... Or perhaps we could show our appreciation by not sending them off to get shot at in the first place. These are all things that republicans (and, to be fair, some democrats) are directly responsible for.
That is why I don't share your pictures and messages of support for our troops. Because words are cheap, and actions mean more. I will show my support for our troops in my own way. I will support charities and political efforts to get soldiers and veterans the care they need, and I will support political candidates who will send our troops to war only when it is absolutely beyond doubt that there is NO OTHER OPTION. This may not be a popular opinion, because it doesn't make one feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it is the truth. I will not presume to claim to support our troops until I can honestly say that I have indeed DONE SOMETHING to support our troops.
Words are easy, inconveniencing oneself to take action to the benefit of another is hard.