Children playing with weapons distracts from Marine Week success

Cleveland Plain Dealer ^ | 6/16/2012 | Mark Naymick

[Saije]

One image sticks with me from Marine Week, the military celebration in Cleveland that wraps up tomorrow.

It's not one of Marines in uniforms mingling in our bars and on our streets, or of their tanks and helicopters parked around downtown, or even of the somber evening taps ceremonies at Voinovich Park honoring the fallen. I keep coming back to the image of two girls, both 8, playing with shoulder-fired rocket launchers on Public Square.

In this image, one girl's tiny hands are wrapped around the handle and trigger, her mouth propped wide open with laughter, her eyes closed. A soldier's hand holds up the weapon's large tube barrel. The other girl is lifting a second weapon largely unassisted, the weight and size of it forcing her to bend as a grimace breaks her exuberant smile.

Plain Dealer photographer Lisa DeJong captured the image, which appeared in the Plain Dealer Tuesday. It generated some controversy inside and outside the paper.

Some thought the juxtaposition of such lethal weapons with pure innocence and excitement was too jarring or sent the wrong message.

[servo1969]

We must not allow our children to show any interest in weapons or the military. Nor should we allow them to develop a sense of patriotism for their country. If we can just keep raising one generation of p*ssyfied kids after another we will eventually be able to eliminate war altogether! /sarcasm

I’m sure the Chinese, Russians,and North Koreans will agree! /not sarcasm

[ExCTCitizen]

Children playing with weapons distracts from Marine Week success

Jeez, what will liberals complain about next...

[ExCTCitizen]

Children playing with weapons distracts from Marine Week success

Jeez, what will liberals complain about next...??

[vpintheak]

What a bunch of sissies! My beautiful girly girls love guns and thing that go boom! Lefty nutless wonders. Pathetic.

[JimSEA]

I just have to say to the “journalist”, shut up - this is perfectly normal. Jeez

[blueunicorn6]

Mark Naymick......what a sensitive guy.......that makes him better than everyone else......he cares more......the Marines spend 24 hours a day making a difference in this world......Mark writes pablum stories......if Mark wants to make a difference, stop writing meaningless stories and hike your behind down to the recruiting office.....anybody can write a good story about changing the world.....the Marines live it. There are those who tell everyone they care and there are those who do care.....and the ones who do care wear uniforms.

[Flintlock]

Once his pin has been pulled................

Mr. Grenade IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!!

[Regulator]

LOL Looks like they’re having fun!

My kid had a blast there, got to play with the gun on an APC, have a luvly photo of that, Marine Sgt helped him, so did his ex-tank commander Uncle

[FreedomPoster]

I have a shot like that of my son when he was about 14 holding a Stinger tube. I think the HMMV Stinger vehicle was in the background. We were at Road Atlanta, and the Army or Marines (I think the former) had a recruiting group with anti-air hardware on display.

These blissninnies like the one who wrote this article need to get a clue.

[a fool in paradise]

The children are under adult supervision. More specifically, the children are under US Marine adult supervison. Secondly, those launchers and any weapons that are displayed are rendered inoperable. My suggestion to the folks at the newspaper, including the reporter and the photographer is to get the sand out of your shorts and wad out of your panties and stop being a bunch of pansies.

Is this the same Cleveland where Ernie Anderson (and later The Ghoul) used to blow up toy models using M-80s home viewers MAILED to the tv studio?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6mPNK6vDBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmWrcSf64f8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoiU6uOTkvc

[rabidralph]

Just wait till those little darlings grow up and find out that only the boys get to play with those weapons.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I hear his live shows are awesome. He’s touring now.

[Future Snake Eater]

I’m pretty sure Mark Naymick squats to pee. What a little bitch.

[rabidralph]

The same stuff the men on this board complain about: women in the military. How interesting that a couple of children are applauded for handling weaponry, yet, if these girls ever enlist, you same guys will be screaming if they are allowed to use those weapons in combat. Kinda odd.

[Jack Hammer]

Another weenie journalist wanker moaning about something or other.

Why did the kids of The Greatest Generation turn into such juvenile, weak-kneed little sh*ts?

[cripplecreek]

And he knows his way around a guitar despite looking like a cross between Conway Twitty and Dracula.

Voodoo Chile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdSgFABwtiw&feature=related

Bridge of Sighs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZwO7QsMJRs&feature=related