Growing up I don’t believe I had ever heard the phrase, “Thank you for your service,” until maybe a few years ago when some of us started to question why again were we fighting people in Iraq. It seemed to be the catch all phrase given by a grateful nation to the less than half of 1 percent of the country’s population that was actually doing the fighting in the Middle East. It seemed it was the right thing to say when you couldn’t really explain why so many people were coming back without a limb, or a functional mind or even their lives.
Many people say that we fight them over there so that we don’t have to fight them over here. But the point of fact is we don’t fight “them” anywhere. We sit at home or drive our SUV’s to the mall or big box store to get our giant flat screen TVs to watch the “game” or the newest disposable computer to watch our porn over the net and then complain about the price of gas or levels of taxation. We are left then only with the ability to offer disingenuous platitudes of, “Thank you for your service,” to the extreme minority that actually do fight.
Why do I call it disingenuous, because of people like Rick Perry?
Governor Perry says that, regardless of whether it affects military effectiveness or not, if you don’t fit into his version of what armed forces personnel should be like, then you are a detriment to the country and its core beliefs. He equates openly gay soldiers with the lack of prayer in schools. It’s sort of like saying that women’s suffrage movement and their right to vote was responsible for the Great Depression. One really has nothing to do with the other but he doesn’t see it that way nor, I believe, do many other people.
So when Perry says, “Thank you for your service,” does he only mean it when he’s referring to straight people, Christian people, white people? I don’t know. My guess is that he doesn’t mean it to any people and that it’s just something to say without having to get into finding out about the person he’s saying to, or figuring out how he can make things better for that person. He says it and uses it like so many of us say it and use it now as a euphemism for convenience.
And that’s my pet peeve.
Excellent point, my friend. Fortunately, your issues concerning Rick Perry have also become the concerns of many in this country. His campaign is crumbling into oblivion as the majority of his own party realize that he's totally clueless.
ReplyDeleteAs to our service members risking their lives for a simple, thoughtless, automatic "thank you," the recent Republican candidates debate in Pennsylvania demonstrated the die-hard patriotism of his party. When a gay soldier serving in an active war theater asked a question about reinstating DADT, the audience booed and NONE of the candidates even bothered to express any regret until a public outcry followed.
I feel that people like Perry are mentally lost victims of a sick & twisted time warped mindset which helped to educate them, cripple them, mold them & basically make them into the feeble-minded fools that they are. There's nothing so terrible about being mentally lost, unless you don't see a reason to re-educate yourself or to step away from your old tired, racially uninformed bigoted ethics.
ReplyDelete& oh, please stop calling yourself a "Christian" when in almost every circumstance you do, say, think & act out in the complete OPPOSITE actions of what JESUS would do!
That's MY pet peeve! And thank you for the service of this entry!
One.
Roger - Rick Perry maybe "clueless" but he has been able to tap into much of his Republican base by the use of this ad. His bigotry against openly gay soldiers is not just something that he may believe in, but something many others believe in too. He just represents the hypocrisy of those who could openly applaud a person while secretly washing their hands of them at the same time.
ReplyDeleteOne - So tell me how you really feel....I just don't get how a man who is trying to get a job where he will be the person most responsible for upholding and defending the Constitution believes that bigotry and narrow mindedness are the best ways to go... And Christian? Rick Perry's version of Christianity is what gives religion a bad name.
Excellent points! The Rick Perry ad really made me mad. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought the ad was made in the 1970s. You have high ranking military officials on board with DADT, saying that it isn't a detriment for gays to serve. However, that's not good enough for people of Perry's ilk. This is one of many reasons I'm glad he'll never be president.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've renamed my blog (it's new title is Progressive Soup). However, the URL is the same so the only thing you'll need to update on your blogroll is the name. Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm - Unfortunately Rick Perry is like so many other people who point and denegrate others into becoming the "bogeyman" only so they can hide their own dirt or lack of intelligence under the bed....and thanks for the headsup.
ReplyDeleteYou are right on point and I can truly understand your dismay and why yyou have these sudden pet peeves.
ReplyDeleteChet - It just upsets me that these people will do one thing in your face and then wait for you to turn around so they can kick you in the backside while nobody says anything.
ReplyDelete