A cartoonist meets our troops
Stephan Pastis, the creator of the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine”, recently went on a tour for the USO in the Middle East along with nine other cartoonists and met our troops. He discovered what most of us here at TAH already know;
I have never been thanked by anyone as I was by those soldiers we visited in hospitals and on military bases. Their thanks were as sincere and heartfelt as anything I’ve ever heard. And as much as it was for our being cartoonists whose strips they might enjoy, I think it was also simply because we were there.
I wish I could introduce them to you. They were sincere and direct and respectful to a degree I have never experienced in my day-to-day life here. And if something were to have posed a threat to any of us while we were there, I had no doubt they would have protected us before they protected themselves.
Every morning, I groan while getting out of my bed knowing that I have to face a day with the latte-drinking crowd and I miss the mornings when I bounded from my bed at oh-dark-thirty looking forward to my day (weeks, months) ahead that I’d spend among soldiers. I’m glad that Mr. Pastis believes the gap between the troops and the latte crowd is bridgeable, and I’d like to share his optimism, but I don’t hold out much hope.
The latte crowd prefers to see the troops as victims of George Bush, of a failed education system, of predatory recruiters, of jingoistic neo-cons – that way the latte crowd doesn’t have to accept the fact that there are things in this country worth dying and sacrificing. That there are people in this country who put other things above SELF.
People who have never spent a day in uniform think that sacrifice means watching the news a few times every week and being subjected to homogenized images of war. I’ve heard them tell recovering wounded soldiers that “we’ve all lost things in this war” when the only thing they’ve given up is cheap coffee and common sense.
Thanks to David Marron of The Thunder Run for the link.
Category: Liberals suck, Support the troops, Terror War
There is a woman up the street from me who is in therapy because she is terrified that the government will draft her son and send him to war. I. Kid. You. Not.
I tried explaining to her that there is no draft and no plans to introduce one, but she refuses to believe me, citing the “selective service registration” that her son had to fill out.
Sadly, up here in the People’s Republic of Maine, there are many like her, and far too many who would rather see the US suffer a terrible defeat to “put us in our proper place” than see us win anywhere.
Heck, there’s even parents who go to PTA meetings who want football banned because it “contributes to the culture of violence” in our nation. Gag.
Strongly agree with you Jonn. It’s amazing how celebrities change their views after visiting troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Too bad it took Pastis 8 years to figure it out, but still appreciate him finally making the trip.
There are things in this nation worth sacrificing and dying for.
But it is not to defend those that people are sacrificing and dying now.
Boy, Howdy! I miss that o-dark thirty thing myself. And I really love it when I meet newly graduated kids and they extend their hands for greeting and use phrases like “Yes M’aam,”or “No, sir.” and the way that they do tend to look you in the eyes not down on the ground.
As for the stoopid statements of those who have not served or “lost” something in war…They know not what they say, or have not done. Feel kinda sorry for them.
Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree, Selena. You’re entitled to your opinion, I’m entitled to mine.