Message #10881

[dragonladybug]

It's sad but true that most Americans don't remember to honor those who put their lives at risk to protect freedom.  Coming from a fairly military family that includes several career officers (one of whom died in Vietnam), maybe I (like MsMarieH) have a little different perspective.  We tend to fly our flags at all times - didn't have to run out and buy one.  Memorial Day is a little higher on our priority list than just a day off work and a picnic.



And yes, it's sad that our society seems to put more value on civilian lives - we should be outraged at any loss of life whether civilian, military, American, or non-American.  Our culture in recent years has not been one to honor the military - 30 years ago Vietnam vets were vilified as baby killers.  Imagine how they felt at the support the Gulf War received and how they feel now.



Public schools actively discourage any display of Americanism - it might offend someone.  We as parents and teachers haven't been teaching our children to be patriots - we're too busy making sure everything is "fair" and that children learn it's not fair for one person to have something that another cannot afford (regardless of the fact that they earned it) - that it's fair to forcibly take away from the "haves" to give to the "have-nots".  Our generation has spent all its time searching for our "inner child", trying to be a friend to our children instead of a parent and the result is spoiled, self-centered people who only think of things in terms of the impact on their own lives.



If we allow this indoctrination of our children to continue, there won't be a patriot left anywhere - there won't be anyone at all to defend freedom.  Schoolbooks teach re-written history that's been sanitized so as not to offend, or to salve our collective conscience.  The true meaning of what America stands for is falling by the wayside - a victim of political correctness.  Kids don't even know the vice-president's name, much less the fact that the US is not a true "democracy", it is a "Democratic Republic"; and there is a big, big difference between the two.



I'll get off my soapbox, now - maybe I'll go and write a letter to my cousin in the Army or my cousin in the Navy and thank them again.