Veteran gets rude welcome on Bainbridge [It's Baaaak!]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | July 9, 2004 | ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr

[johnny7]

Think about the Seattle area -- Bainbridge Island to be exact -- and you think scenic views and liberal-minded tolerance. At least the killer views are still there.

The bucolic island's deep reputation for civility got a gut check this week during the annual Grand Old Fourth of July celebration. That's when Jason Gilson, a 23-year-old military veteran who served in Iraq, marched in the local event. He wore his medals with pride and carried a sign that said "Veterans for Bush." Walking the parade route with his mom, younger siblings and politically conservative friends, Jason heard words from the crowd that felt like a thousand daggers to the heart. "Baby killer!" "Murderer!" "Boooo!"

To understand why the reaction of strangers hurt so much, you must read what the young man had written in a letter from Iraq before he was disabled in an ambush: "I really miss being in the states. Some of the American public have no idea how much freedom costs and who the people are that pay that awful price. I think sometimes people just see us as nameless and faceless and not really as humans. ... A good portion of us are actually scared that when we come home, for those of us who make it back, that there will be protesters waiting for us and that is scary." On the Fourth, Jason faced his worst fear.

It was such a public humiliation -- home front insult after battlefield injury. It really shouldn't have happened for two principal reasons. Reason No. 1? History. The past informs us that the men and women who fight our wars are not just following orders. They are risking life and limb. When they return from the battlefield they should be embraced regardless of the public popularity about the conflict, regardless of the politics. Have we so quickly forgotten the painful lessons of Vietnam? Frederick Scheffler, whose daughter and son-in-law marched with Jason on Sunday, hasn't. Scheffler -- an Army veteran of two tours in Southeast Asia -- was shot in the leg during that long-ago conflict. He came home with a cane, only to discover the American public was either indifferent to his sacrifice or downright hostile. "I didn't think in this day and age combat veterans would be treated in this manner," Scheffler, 60, tells me, reflecting on Jason. "I saw it happen to veterans in Vietnam. I'm not going to let it happen today, not to these kids."

Reason No. 2? The rules. The Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce, which put on the community celebration, permits freedom of expression at the event but asks that parade announcers not act in a manner that is partisan or prejudicial. Jason's mother, Tamar, says a female parade announcer locked eyes on her son who was walking behind a pro-Republican group called Women in Red, White and Blue. The group supports President Bush and the troops in the fight against terrorism. According to Tamar, the female announcer sarcastically asked Jason: "And what exactly are you a veteran of?" The perceived mocking, the mother adds, set off some people in the crowd, loosing a flood of negative comments, "like a wave... a mob-style degrading." Kevin Dwyer, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, spoke with the announcer after the allegations reached him this week. He says the woman denies using sarcasm; she just wanted to know which war Jason was a veteran of so that she could "honor him" in public. "It wasn't her intention to incite anything -- that's what she told me," Dwyer said. "But if she acted out of school, that's not what we're about." Dwyer added: "I believe (Jason's) mom when she said her son was called 'a murderer.' But I'm sure it wasn't so much directed at the kid as it was the president. A soldier with a sign represents that." The female announcer told Dwyer that some in the Bush-Cheney contingent in the parade seemed "militant."

And so, battle lines are drawn. From the outside looking in, the fuel for this conflict seems obvious. The left-leaning island hosted a group of people who support Bush's controversial war. (On the same parade route, people bearing pro-Kerry signs were cheered and applauded for, among other things, tooling around in an environmentally responsible car.) Against such a roiling backdrop, an unfortunate tone of voice or the wording on a sign can spark, well, something -- something unconscionable it appears.

But less obvious factors are undoubtedly at work here, too. The female announcer at the parade had a father who fought for America in a previous U.S. conflict. He never made it back home. Jason's mother -- unbeknownst to many observers along the parade route -- is a tireless activist behind the pro-troops movement in the Puget Sound region. Such a combo on a day of red, white and blue can only lead to fireworks -- snap, crackle and popping off during what locals call the "best small-town parade in America."

P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com

[clamper1797]

The pukes weren't worth your energy.

I and especially a lot of my brothers had to live with the way we were treated when we returned from the war. I have had 31 years of that "baby killer/spitting" incident to stew inside of me. If I had loosened a few teeth that day instead of just standing there ... I would have felt a WHOLE lot better through those years. AND if a WW2 vet had seen my incident and had loosened those teeth for me ... I would have felt welcomed home from that day on. That is why I would loosen some teeth if some PUKE were to diss a returning vet in front of me ... I would take that WW2 vets place cause I know how much it would have meant to me when I returned.

[GoLightly]

I hear what you're saying. If any of that garbage is ever said within my hearing, this semi-old lady will pull out some of the oldest & most effective tools against childish cruelty. Hurt from guilt & shame lasts longer than a loosened tooth. Getting into the mud to fight the pig, pig likes it, you know the drill.

You stuck to the high road, rather than lowering yourself to their level. You acted with integrity & are to be commended. Some of those who should have been your brothers stood by silently. We learn from their failing & do differently, this time around.

I used to be a regular contributor in another on-line community. For years, I've "known" the Step-Mom of one of the first soldiers killed in Iraq. One of the other regulars there had been spouting that "support our troops by bringing them home" crap, so you can imagine how inappropriate her response was to the grieving Step-Mom. I was not the only one to rip into her. I hope some well earned shame is the reason the ditz left, never to return there again.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

You can email Jason Gilson.

frodo5@comcast.net.

[anonymoussierra]

Good afternoon great America friend. I like what you write. I like to give you Grom salute to all great America soldiers. You love America and that is good. That evil cretin do not like America. That is not nice person say word like that to ather person, not good. But you are good America person, America military have good person.

Grom Salute to America soldiers.

[anonymoussierra]

Good Afternoon good great America Friend.

Thank you for good word to America. Thank you for english lesson. You are good person.

Grom Salute to America soldiers.

[smokeyb]

Thanks for the ping Tonk ! I heard this soldier on Hannity's radio show today. He wants to get any video of it so he can show it on his TV show ! Ping anyone you can that might have or might know anyone with a copy of it !

[JLO]

Well, then hey! Good to you. I'm sure you are more behind the scenes than I knew. Word is getting out for sure.

Midwest folks sure don't wanna see it. We know better! Midwest values spoke to theater owners and they banned it from being seen.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040709/film_nm/film_fahrenheit_dc_5

[combat_boots]

I wrote the PI on this one. I remember well the last time, and was there to see what happened to folks then. Made me angry then, too. Cowards! Calling people names when they don't have the courage to face the foe on the field.

[GypsyPhyr]

I live in Washington, I travel through and in the Bainbridge Island community where this happened every day. I want you and everyone else to understand that it is more likely that the people booing, and the woman and couple slinging those foul slurs are not the descendants but in fact the SAME PEOPLE who said such things during our Vietnam War. You must be rather wealthy to live on that island.

It hurts my heart. I was a hippie way back when. I protested that war. I felt it wrong to round up the boys around me and ship them over there, to fight, to kill, to be killed. We had grown up incredibly sheltered and we were not prepared to face that.

Now, it is diffrent. These are young men who volunteered. They know what they face. They may not be prepared for it, but they choose to go none the less.

And my old sisters and brothers, and their misguided and ill educated children do not use thought, rationality, logic, truth, or any other defensable basis for their beliefs anymore. Their slogans make little sense. They cannot explain or defend their beliefs in complete sentences. They can only yell insults, throw garbage and break things.

I am embarassed, ashamed and angered by their behavoir. While they think they are getting some point accross with this, I think everyone else just sees pettiness and meaness and self-loathing. Leftists were once better than that. No more.