[Sam's Army]

Which flag did you pledge alleigance to in the military?

Next time I bitch about big gov't I'll not blame a President or General who have been dead for a couple of generations. I will point the finger to the culprits of today.....crooked politicians and apathetic voters.

Other than the "Big Government" comment, the rest of your paragraph above reads like a shrill treatise from a far-left white-male hating organization like A.N.S.W.E.R.

If you served this country it is a shame that you seek so hard to find what is wrong with it by becoming focused on what was wrong in the past by today's standards, but was acceptable to many at the time (see also: slavery). Should the Indians get reparations too along with the blacks? How about the Indians that were moved off of southern lands well before the Civil War? Should descendants of white southerners now get reparations from the north; who dared as to be so arrogant as to fight a war and win? (And we are better off today for that victory: see WW2)

Sometimes ya just gotta be thankful to God for what you have and where you live and move toward the future. We are not perfect as a nation, and our history has some dark moments (I am part Cherokee), but we can only focus so much on what a bastard Sherman was. It makes no difference in the war on terror.

[Colt .45]

"Other than the "Big Government" comment, the rest of your paragraph above reads like a shrill treatise from a far-left white-male hating organization like A.N.S.W.E.R."

I don't belong to A.N.S.W.E.R., nor am I left-wing in any of my views. I first enlisted during Viet Nam to defend my country and have spent 20 years on active duty in defense of your freedom and right to speak. I am a Republican, white-Irish American of southern ancestry. My race has known predjudice and oppression, but I am not out looking for handouts. I voted for the current President, hated the last one, and took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign or domestic! We didn't pledge allegiance to a flag, we saluted the colors! One thing you need to do is to stop looking at life through a plexiglass stomach. One needs to acknowledge the wrongs committed in the past to understand today's situation. History isn't about one viewpoint, moron, its about telling both sides of a story! Are we better off today ... in some respects yes, and in some respects no. Reparations? I don't feel that any of the groups you mentioned deserve reparations, but the guilty parties need to own up to their culpability. Whites have owned up to slavery, but the Yankees continue to deny any legitimacy to the South's right of secession, and by diligent study of what the Founders' meant when they set up this country I can tell you that the government we have is a mere shadow of what they envisioned.

"Sometimes ya just gotta be thankful to God for what you have and where you live and move toward the future."

I thank God every day that I live in a country where I have the right to express my views, whether they piss you off or not! Next time you question my patriotism boyo, you better come armed with facts, not with a lot of horse manuer!