As is the PC thing people do these days, I will, nonetheless, thank you now,
Asheville, for your selfless service to this chosen country of mine. Difference is that I truly, sincerely mean it! Back then (in '67 I was...
lesseee thimk thmik... 20 yrs old.) I was a young
Canook in Camo, with dreams of the glory in war!
I was also just right for plucking and sending over to 'Nam as Cannon Fodder. Trouble was, I was a Canuck, just into the Canadian Army, 72nd Seaforth Highlanders Regiment, them kilted baztarhd boyz (The Maidens from Hell, the Nazis use o say...), who nonetheless had a fearsome reputation for being outstanding marksmen (no doubt because the Canuck Army only issued us each 3 rounds of .308/NATO ammo for our FN CALs, semi-auto only: two to practice with, and one if a war should break out!)
http://www.seaforthhighlanders.ca/history/history.html (broken link)
I actually travelled down to Bellingham, WA, in early '68, close to my Vancouver, BC home, and inquired about enrolling into the US Army sniper school (I'd actually come in 2nd in all of Canada in the annual long-range rifle comps, with a 10-shot 46" group, but that was @ 1000 meters, (OMG!!!) and with an
iron-sighted .308 converted Lee-Enfield bolt gun. Iron sights!). Why waste that skill and training after all, huh?
The recruiters were very interested, but somehow I got lost in the process, and now I'm awfully glad I did not end up enrolling! Too young, after all! What does a 20 yr old really understand, esp. about their spirituality and religion. This is also when I lost my Christianity: reality and introspection can do that!
BTW, Why where "we" over there anyhow? Which sort of ship were you on? Carrier, tug, destroyer, barge?
But still: think of the maturing experiences of face-to-face wear, huh? Esp. when you know down deep that you should not even be there in the first place!
Churchill had some famous quote about how maturing it is to be shot at and survive. Oh yeah: here it is:
"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."
Read more:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/qu...#ixzz1lvcOSS8n
Talk about bigotry & hypocrisy though. The raving anti-war activists at the airports, strung out on mescaline and weed, coupled with the Christians who would have happily sent most young men off to fight off the "dreaded commies!" [long as it wasn't their kids.... ], all of it quite t
ragi-frantic and funny, though at a very real cost in human suffering and the lives of innocent young men. Many of them came back with a serious heroin habit they could never kick.
So: they initiated numerous offshore wars to help build a
Christian democracy our way? Can we hope or say Never Again? Sorry: we have the
Bush-Raqi war and
Afghanistan to now clean ourselves out of. Gawd Help Us! And we're thinking about maybe co-surging into Iran with Israel? Or into Syria? Oh Lawdy Lawdy...
Specifically, as to the OP, I will absolutely fight for the rights of private American citizens to do
whatever harmless things they choose to do in the privacy of their own homes and lives. And with the babies they have formed up in their own bodies, though I also require them to be thoughtful and sincere about it, not flippant nor cavalier). And I will protect the independent thinkers amongst us not have to
ever again endure the slings & arrows of public rant-a-chants spewing from the bigoted mouths of rabid Christian activists everywhere, with their
über-righteous
"Holier-Than-Thou" and
"We-Know-Best" attitudes.
Dub-Yah's Christian Bigotry; should be a bumper sticker there somewhere!