Posted on 06/16/2012 6:58:45 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
I think I lost an inch off my manhood just reading that.
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.
My daughter is 6. She shoots live firearms. She does it in a safe and positive environment. Holding an inert weapon is really nothing to have an aneurism over.
Stupid kids! Flame throwers are too heavy and you have to refill them all of the time. Hand grenades- that’s the ticket! Hand grenades are small, cheap, come in different models, and so simple to use that a five year old can get proper instruction and practical application exercise in one morning.
forget hand grenades
we’re heading to a point where the 5 yr olds will be manning drones
re: ender’s game
Isn’t this the same crowd that wants women to be in combat zones to prove their equality with men? These little girls are just looking forward to the feminists’ future for U.S, women,
LOL Looks like they’re having fun!
Put it down! It’ll put your eye out.
Would Anyone like to bet that this photo was staged....
Oh, dry up!
Actually, I borderline give this author credit. He presented mostly reactions, evenly distributed, from parents, and only once or twice injected opinion. I was pleasantly surprised.
Oh, the horror ... the horror.
I am assuming this lib writer had a sex change?
Imagine the liberal heart attacks all over the country, if those girls had been aiming those weapons at and image of bin-Laden or Hitler, or a group of terrorists.
What the writer probably wanted in the girls’ hands, was a letter of apology addressed to all the bad people of the world.
Future Marines.
Hi! I'm Mark Naymick and I pee sitting down.
This is the same kind of mentality that gives us expulsion of non-Eric Holder kids for having a plastic knife in their lunch bag or the TSA confiscating toy soldiers holding guns.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.