Posted on 07/09/2004 3:24:18 AM PDT by 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
One day it won't be PC to heckle the troops. Those who do will be taught a lesson in civility by society.
I attended a meeting and talked with an academic who was articulate and against the war but "for the troops". Later, the son of one of the attendees was asked to speak. He had just returned from Iraq. All in the audience rose and applauded him for his duty, except the academic who remained seated and did not applaud. He left immediately and did not hear the comments of the young man who said how distorted the news is about what is happening.
That was my experience in Vietnam. I knew what was happening when I was there and when I returned, the news was just the opposite or distorted. I stopped watching the evening news. Thank God for FR and the internet.
Thank you. I want your great president to be hero, he is to me and Grom. I do not America weak strong America is good.
__________________________________________
And Patty Murray held the loudspeaker for them . .
Starting to look/sound like 68 all over again.. That's the real danger of a looong campaign for the Dems..their hard left lunatic anti-war peacenik crowd will go waaay over the top..
Kapusta? Cabbage? How about katufla?
In this country, these people are perfectly free to say these things. Say it about my son and these people would be perfectly free to go to the emergency room.
I'm afraid that day is a long way off.
Oooooh, that's good.
"but more and more are just pure evil" im sorry for take your word. is true, in my country many people want to be in komunizm but we young do not want to. It is evil. My husband help with America is in Irak and who have no respect to this people do not know what free is to be.
Kartofle :} I will cook for you.
you love your country why do they do not like America. They from America, love your great country. Great Ocean is in way and I love your great country, that people are evil. That people do not know America is free, we in Poland loosing this again. Socialist from EU destroying my country.
The ONLY cure for this country... a landslide win in November for the Bush/Cheney team. 4 more years of adults in the Whitehouse.
"...words from the crowd that felt like a thousand daggers to the heart. 'Baby killer!' 'Murderer!' 'Boooo!"
And if he'd stopped to kick their teeth in, HE'D be wrong.
Crazy crazy world.
What about bierock?
These people are just plain nuts.
Pierogi. I cook that to. Rice,meat itp.
Boffo! I'm glad someone else has said so! I believe shooting someone (even the enemy) in the back with a co cal. is murder. I don't know about the Geneva convention rules though.......
We don't call it Braindead Island for nothing.
Someone with a fast computer should look up the Bainbridge C of C newsletter and find out who this BITCH is.
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.