You've probably figured out by now that I don't like getting blindly-forwarded, guilt-trip inducing, "support our troops the way I say you should, or you're un-American" email messages.
A friend sent me one a few days ago that starts like this:
Half Man - Half Boy
If you read this, you WILL forward it on.
You just won't be able to stop yourself.
The average age of the military man is 19 years. He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country.
...and I unloaded on him with this reply:
I find it neither patriotic nor worthwhile to forward an email message designed to perpetuate national priorities favoring the privileged few over the less well-off many by taking advantage of the idealism of those very "Half Man - Half Boy" troops it disingenuously pretends to champion.I'll continue to support our troops by working to show folks who forward such messages the difference between jingoism and patriotism and to elect leaders who espouse policies which see war as a last resort rather than as the centerpiece of foreign policy.
Today, I have reason to believe that my friend is discovering that sappy emails and yellow "ribbons" made in China and stuck on the bumper of a gas-guzzling SUV do not constitute support for our troops. Like wakes and memorial services for the dead, they exist primarily to make those left behind feel good, and they do absolutely nothing for those who have undergone the experience which is being commemorated.
Just a few minutes ago I received the following from him:
OK! OK! Try this.
God Bless Our Troops!
God Bless America
Indeed!
Our troops are very good at making lemonade out of the lemons which life and the inept Bush administration has thrown at them.
They're also quite capable of taking care of themselves without sappy, self-serving acts of faux-patriotism from us.
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