Stand back! I'm on a roll!

I continue to be distressed, depressed, and downright PISSED by the apathy I encounter about our troops returning from Iraq! Since when are returning heroes, coming home to their loved ones, not an occasion for joy?

On the one hand, I'm told this war isn't like Viet Nam or WWII. This time around, not everyone knows someone serving over there. It's not "that kind of war." No draft. Meaning that the kids who enlisted are, by and large, from a lower economic stratum, young people who don't have 4-year college degrees or defined career paths. That's a bullshit excuse. They are still Americans who volunteered to go overseas and fight and die for us.* At the very least, we owe them our attention.

On the other hand, I'm told we just don't have the wherewithal to give a shit because times here are tough. Oh, I don't need to be told that times here are tough. Anyone who reads this blog KNOWS how many layoffs I have endured, how many times I have felt the blade touch my own neck, how I have friends and members of my own family who struggle financially. As if that weren't enough, I work in a major metropolitan area, so I am asked every few blocks for spare change by those who have come upon hard times. I drop off donations to our local food pantry personally, rather than doing it through my church, because I don't ever want to forget that my neighbors continue to suffer.

But then, if that's your justification for yawning when you hear that the troops will be home by Christmas, you're still full of shit. Because so many of these young people enlisted because, like you, they were responding to hard times and could not find other work.

So I am making it my personal freaking CRUSADE to drum up enthusiasm for our troops and veterans!

At work I am continuing my collection for Operation Shoebox. I promise you that if you check out their List of Suggested Items that the troops need/want, you'll find things around your home that you don't even have to purchase. These good folks will then take your donations -- like used paperbacks or that unopened travel-sized shampoo that you took with you last time you stayed in a motel -- put them in shoeboxes and then send them off to our soldiers in Afghanistan.

For veterans coming home from Iraq, there are plenty of things you can do, as well. Here's a link from our Department of Veteran Affairs.

Look out! Between now and the end of the year I am going to post about this topic ALOT. Maybe it's because at heart I'm just a corny little patriot. Maybe it's because I realize how lucky I am that my all my test results came back benign. Maybe I'm still worried that those beautiful young people I flew alongside from O'Hare to Richmond (and Langley AFB) won't be coming home. Maybe it's because my oldest nephew has enlisted in the Navy and will be deployed somewhere by year's end ... Whatever the reason, my attention has been captured.

And if you don't feel like having your ear bent on this topic, feel free to just move along.


* I never believed in WMDs or going into Iraq, but that's hardly the point. They enlisted and they went where their Commander in Chief sent them. God bless them for that.