Posted on 02/24/2005 12:28:47 PM PST by TFFKAMM
Guilt can only weigh on a person's mind for so long before they crave the act of purgation; to get the weighty feelings of shame and responsibility out of the mind - or at least the guilty parties attempt to find some kind of peace if they cannot rid themselves of a screaming conscience that implicates and indicts its possessor.
That said, perhaps some readers will understand why my friends and I rip yellow ribbon "support the troops" magnets off of cars or wherever people have affixed them. By ripping off these ribbons, we find a way to deal with our guilt, as though with each ribbon swiped we take back a life that was taken by this senseless war started by our senseless president and those who support him.
I will never say, "support the troops." I don't believe in the validity of that statement. People say, "I don't support the war, I support the troops" as though you can actually separate the two. You cannot; the troops are a part of the war, they have become the war and there is no valid dissection of the two. Other people shout with glaring eyes that we should give up our politics, give up our political affiliations in favor of "just supporting the troops." I wish everything were that easy.
What they really mean is that we should just give up our will, give up our identities, give up our voices to those in power. Perhaps that's just the way people aligned with the right wing choose to get rid of their guilt: blindness and ignorance.
I listen to talk radio very often. It's important to know who your enemies are. The pundits on the radio are the pinnacles of guiltless, shameless wonders, and I am jealous. It must feel good to believe without question, to benefit from the blind belief of young men and women who chose to join the armed forces, to sit in a radio studio in New York and admonish the public to give in like the troops, to just follow orders, to live as just a number that will soon be etched into a gravestone that no one will ever see.
I look into the cars of people with "support the troops" ribbons as I speed past, trying to find some trace of recognition on their face, recognition of their guilt and the fact that they have given up. I usually see nothing; just a mouth moving robotically, singing the pop hits of today or the contemporary country wine of fake cowboys who share a lot with George Bush: no shame.
We say, "support the troops" so that we won't feel guilty about saying "no" to war. We reason that if we say that we support the troops, somehow we aren't monsters for not saying a word when the death tolls of U.S. soldiers climbed above 1,000. Those ribbons are yellow for a reason, they are not the mark of armed forces support, they are the mark of cowards.
Pundits on the radio advise their cowardly listeners to approach men and women in army uniforms and say "thank you." I cannot do that. Every time I pass a person in uniform I look long and hard at them and all I can think inside to say is "I'm so sorry." I want to apologize to them, to their families and to their friends. I feel sorry that we, the people, couldn't control our own government at the outset of this conflict when most of us knew deep inside that it was a mistake.
Where are we now? Are we in a better place? Is the world safer for democracy? No, it is not safer and we are not in a better place. In this war that we are fighting to somehow avenge the deaths of the Sept. 11 tragedy, we have amassed a field of body bags, the number of which almost matches the number killed in the terrorist attacks four years ago. Now, we stare at yet another request for barrels of money for this war by President Bush, while people in our own country search fruitlessly for jobs to feed their starving families, while every public school gets left behind, while our elderly are ensured an uncertain future of unpaid medical bills.
I guess we shouldn't think about those things though, right? We should just buy a yellow magnet and slap it on the butt of our car so we can sleep at night and just let our government do whatever they want. That's supporting the troops, right?
Two years ago my friend Eric called me out of the blue after almost five years of silence between us. We were in a band together when we were teenagers and he had joined the army around the time I was graduating from high school. He had to join the army; he had a son to provide for in the grand tradition of many young members of the armed forces. He called me to tell me that he was going back to Iraq, against his will. He was so sad and angry and scared. He didn't say it, but I know he was calling to tell me that he might die. I didn't say it to him then, but I felt such overwhelming guilt that I couldn't do anything to keep him from going back.
I haven't heard from him since. I don't know if he's dead, and my guilt is alive and well. I hope that all of our family members in harm's way return alive. Until then, I can really honor their sacrifice by demanding that it finally comes to an end.
25 million freed people might disagree, Tommy-boy.
I have a rule when reading self-absorbed garbage such as this little screed - when I get to the fifth invocation of the holy word "I" and it's still the first paragraph, it's time to quit reading.
Very sorry for the upstart I gave you.
No problem at all friend.
Was shaking a bit myself after I read the origional post.
Ripping off the ribbons is so constructive, so adult, so helpful to the soldiers he professes to care about./sarcasm
While back someone had an article explaining what a Chicken Dove was. This guy is as Chickendove as they get.
God bless you. For some honor, duty, loyalty and love of Country have real meaning and their lives reflect that.
You must be one of those people.
What this idiot writier derserves when he messes with private property.
That ain't right either.
They call that school Zoo Mass/Amherst.
Kipling said it best-
Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
Spare me the moral outrage, Mr Naughton. How much nobler is it, to slink in parking lots, stealing ribbons from unattended cars? How much braver is it to cower behind a keyboard and spit on the backs of your protectors? How worthy a gravestone does he believe his skulking will buy him?
Who knows? Death comes for us all. I console myself thinking that should he and I die of old age on the same day, I won't have to lie in bed with his regrets. I won't die wishing I had fought with my generation when they needed me, because I was there. I won't die wishing I had supported the next generation when their time came, because I will.
Mr. Naughton may live his whole life never knowing what it is to risk your life for what you think is right, even in the face of protest and ridicule. His comfortable, arrogant condescencion will keep his precious prejudices safe and the bitterness in his heart fresh.
I pity Mr. Naughton because he's a coward. I pity him all the more because he clearly knows it to be true.
"Somewhat" in love with himself? More like worships himself in third person. Typical liberal. He considers himself worthy of worship.
"Somewhat" in love with himself? More like worships himself in third person. Typical liberal. He considers himself worthy of worship.
Somehow, I think not. I also have a hard time believing that such a chickensh** even does what he claims. That'd take brass he obviously lacks.
Dear Thomas Naughton, Book a ticket to Canada..we dont want you here!
Yes.
Time for an indictment.
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! The original song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" was about an ex-con doing time. Not the symbol I want for our soldiers. Not at all.
Dah! Posted twice, drat!
I don't think it carries the unequivocal meaning that "I support our troops and their mission"
You don't find too many chicken-anythings in the US Marines.
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