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NAXJA Forum User
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- Hammerspace
Sorry, but I've gotta go with JT on this one - honour is typically not transferable.
I must applaud your efforts in your political campaigns, but credit for service is not personal unless you personally served. I've had family in every American conflict - and that didn't stop with me (Desert Storm 1991, "Sound and Fury."
I'm glad to say that nearly everyone who ever served in my family has come home afterwards (we lost a couple in the Revolution and in the Civil War - up North,) but I wasn't content to rest upon that, so I enlisted (after actually turning down the Academies - I would make a terrible officer. I'm too much a pessimist - which is why I make a damn good non-com.)
It would also be worth noting that there are "flavours" of patriotism (for lack of a better word) - in my case, I have a firm belief in America as the home of Americans, but I think that we'd do very well to divorce the political process and political concerns from military matters, and a great deal of political reform is needed to make America "The best country on Earth." Due to partisan politics and a mislaid "sense of entitlement," we're sliding backwards - and it's going to get our collective ass kicked if we don't do something about it. There are larger issues to be addressed than abortion and tax cuts (although I am forced to admit, we did recently have a VERY good - and very civil - discussion on abortion and such recently!) but it is not politically expedient to address them and work toward a solution. Until we do, anything that is done is a "band-aid" fix, and will eventually be as effective as a tourniquet for a head wound.
There are patriots who believe that our political process is working just fine - I think they've got their hearts in the right place, but they should open their eyes (we're falling apart at the seams.)
There are patriots who fully espouse the ideals of their selected political party - these are the "straight ticket" voters, who typically have been that way for generations. If the parties weren't merging and both going right to Hell, I'd not have trouble with that. My affiliation? I'm listed as "No Party Affiliation" - but I think the Libertarians are on the right track. I don't agree with them completely, but we're pretty close.
However, I never stopped being a soldier (or, in my case, "Airman") and a soldier is not a political animal. I cut my teeth as an instrument of US Policy, not a maker of policy, and my decisions are still flavoured by that experience.
I don't mind discussion politics - assuming I can have a reasoned, civil discours with another intelligent human being (truly rare in California - but it was commonplace back home in IN.)
I guess what I'm trying to say boils down to this - if you want to stand on your accomplishments, stand on YOUR accomplishments. What your parents, grandparents, and x-great-grandparents did was done largely before you were born, and may or may not have been done with you (in whatever form you'd take) in mind. Even if you were alive at the time, what someone else did for you (or not) does not count as your own accomplishments. I don't cound my father's Silver Star as my own - but I'm pretty damn happy with my Bronze (even if I don't talk about it much.)
I dunno - did I make some sense?
5-90
I must applaud your efforts in your political campaigns, but credit for service is not personal unless you personally served. I've had family in every American conflict - and that didn't stop with me (Desert Storm 1991, "Sound and Fury."
I'm glad to say that nearly everyone who ever served in my family has come home afterwards (we lost a couple in the Revolution and in the Civil War - up North,) but I wasn't content to rest upon that, so I enlisted (after actually turning down the Academies - I would make a terrible officer. I'm too much a pessimist - which is why I make a damn good non-com.)
It would also be worth noting that there are "flavours" of patriotism (for lack of a better word) - in my case, I have a firm belief in America as the home of Americans, but I think that we'd do very well to divorce the political process and political concerns from military matters, and a great deal of political reform is needed to make America "The best country on Earth." Due to partisan politics and a mislaid "sense of entitlement," we're sliding backwards - and it's going to get our collective ass kicked if we don't do something about it. There are larger issues to be addressed than abortion and tax cuts (although I am forced to admit, we did recently have a VERY good - and very civil - discussion on abortion and such recently!) but it is not politically expedient to address them and work toward a solution. Until we do, anything that is done is a "band-aid" fix, and will eventually be as effective as a tourniquet for a head wound.
There are patriots who believe that our political process is working just fine - I think they've got their hearts in the right place, but they should open their eyes (we're falling apart at the seams.)
There are patriots who fully espouse the ideals of their selected political party - these are the "straight ticket" voters, who typically have been that way for generations. If the parties weren't merging and both going right to Hell, I'd not have trouble with that. My affiliation? I'm listed as "No Party Affiliation" - but I think the Libertarians are on the right track. I don't agree with them completely, but we're pretty close.
However, I never stopped being a soldier (or, in my case, "Airman") and a soldier is not a political animal. I cut my teeth as an instrument of US Policy, not a maker of policy, and my decisions are still flavoured by that experience.
I don't mind discussion politics - assuming I can have a reasoned, civil discours with another intelligent human being (truly rare in California - but it was commonplace back home in IN.)
I guess what I'm trying to say boils down to this - if you want to stand on your accomplishments, stand on YOUR accomplishments. What your parents, grandparents, and x-great-grandparents did was done largely before you were born, and may or may not have been done with you (in whatever form you'd take) in mind. Even if you were alive at the time, what someone else did for you (or not) does not count as your own accomplishments. I don't cound my father's Silver Star as my own - but I'm pretty damn happy with my Bronze (even if I don't talk about it much.)
I dunno - did I make some sense?
5-90