Old Hippies - New Wannabe Hippies Converge On Crawford

(ORIGINALLY POSTED ON AUGUST 19, 2005)

Hey! I'm just on vacation so leave me alone! Why in the world should President Bush stop whatever he is doing to answer rhetorical questions posed by a grieving mom? Why should her nonsensical story get 22,000 news hits in a couple of days? Where did all of these hippies come from?

I am a former hippy. I was a war protestor in the late '60's and early '70's. I protested a war in Viet Nam that was over a decade old and was getting nowhere. We did some good over there, but the time had come for things to end in Viet Nam. The humanitarian efforts made by soldiers serving in Viet Nam were rarely if ever recognized. That wasn't sensational enough for the news of the day. So what makes one woman in a sorrowful situation big news now? Well, I think there are too many leftover hippies and new wannabe hippy emulators with nothing better to do than copy what had been done by Viet Nam war protestors over thirty years ago. They don't know the facts. They haven't been there to see what is or isn't going on, but they will damn sure tell you it's time for this thing in Iraq to end. Ask them why and most won't have a clue. It's just something they've heard and then decided to believe in the "cause du jour" because they haven't anything better to do.

I think I may have paid the price for my protesting back in the '70's. I was drafted in the very last draft. I had felt that it was my government's way of getting the last laugh on a dirty hippy. I got a phone call one day from a girl who had been in my brother's classes at school who saw my name and felt she should warn me that I was about to be drafted. It may have been an easy choice for some hippies to turn and run straight north to Canada. It pisses me off to this day to think that all of those people got pardons for doing just that while others served and died. I however , despite my strong anti-war convictions was and am a patriotic American and regardless of my beliefs at the time had one more powerful belief. That is that if called upon, I will defend the honor and glory of my country at any cost. So not only did I go into the Army, I enlisted for an extra year.

Why would somebody do something like that? Simple answer, I was told about a way to stay out of Viet Nam while still answering my call to duty. The USA was ending the draft right after this "final "draft in late 1972. Everyone who entered the Army after that was going to be part of the all new VOLAR, the VOLunteer ARmy. That's right, every person who entered active duty after November of 1972 was a volunteer. THAT MEANS THAT NOBODY WHO HAS SERVED SINCE THEN HAS BEEN "FORCED" TO DO ANYTHING!

Every person entering the service does so as a volunteer. There are many reasons people join up. Some try to work toward that all too expensive education, a benefit that has been given to service members and veterans for years under the GI Bill. Some go to avoid jail. I had 7 guys in Basic Training with me that faced the ultimatum of joining the service or going to jail. Some go because they need to become part of a disciplined society. It has usually been decided by a parent that they haven't been able to make anything of their lives on their own. But way too many Americans forget that some people do join the military because they are patriotic Americans who feel a duty to serve their nation. Every single person in the military right now is there with the possibility facing them that they will be going to a foreign nation to defend our way of life. It may not make sense that they are doing it thousands of miles from home, but if those priciples are trampled "over there", then eventually we will have to face it over here. We defend a way of life that protects freedom. We defend a way of life that allows us to say whatever we want to say in public. This does not give us the right to be right though. Sometimes saying what we think is the right thing is ill conceived or just plain wrong. This is the case in Crawford, Texas and where ever else in this country that people have gathered to support a lady's protected freedom of speech, even if that speech spits in the face of every soldier who has given their life protecting those rights.

The honor of a mother's son is being swept aside and now old hippies and some wannabe new hippies have something to protest. That son joined the service of his own free will. He joined, hopefully, because he felt a patriotic duty. He maybe wanted to keep our way of life free. He paid the ultimate sacrifice by giving his life in the defense and honor of his country. Now his mother has taken away that dignity by discounting the death of her own son and trivializing it by making it her own "personal problem". It's no longer about her son giving his life. It's all about what the president and this country "owe" her. How selfish. I feel her pain. I can easily empathize and I truly do sympatize, but this isn't really about her and what she thinks we as a country owe her. It seems to me that like many people in the beginning of a grief process who have a need to blame somebody, this woman has chosen the president to blame. Now we have to hear the most ridiculous rhetorical question of, "Why aren't your daughters over in Iraq Mr. President?"! It's very simple folks. They didn't volunteer to join the service. It doesn't make them any less patriotic. It certainly doesn't qualify the president as being the right person to blame for the loss of a soldier's life. That soldier joined the service knowing full well that he may one day face combat in defense of this country and the principles for which this country stand. He was not killed because the Bush girls did not accompany him to Iraq!

There are too many problems in this world right now, and taking a stand behind a grieving mother who in her pain asked a stupid rhetorical question of the president just isn't going to solve any of those problems. It won't bring back the life of the soldiers who died in combat. It will not make any senators or congressmen feel so bad that they will go home and force their children to join the service. It will not end this poor woman's grief. It's just something to occupy the minds and time of a bunch of otherwise purposeless people who apparently have way too much tinme on their hands. Leave the president in peace in Crawford, Texas. You wouldn't want people bothering you on your vacation to ask you a question that really has no "right" answer would you? If you really want to be upset about something, go ask the oil companies why gas has risen in price by over 50 cents in the last ten days. If you really want to make a difference, then go volunteer a few hours at the hospital in your community. Go give a pint of blood. Go read at your local school. Just go do something that might have an outcome that is real. If all you are really after is trying to make my president and my country look weak and uncaring, then go the hell to Canada where the rest of the protestors who didn't really want to make a difference in our country went last time protesting a war was cool.

AND IT'S ONE, TWO, THREE WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR. - DON'T ASK ME I DON'T GIVE A DAMN.....I JUST WANTED TO HANG OUT AND BE COOL.