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TGIF!
Today’s quote is from a former president: “We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and in the same way, we are not going to take a great moral ideal and achieve it merely by law.”
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Off-key
Ronald Reagan?
I think it was Ike.
That’s kinda how I feel about abortion actually. Believing that it’s okay to kill like that, that it’s nothing, is a function of the heart. But we must continue the legal battle in an effort to turn the hearts. If that means we pass laws requiring an ultrasound before the abortion, which makes some people think twice, then that’s what we’ll do.
I’m going to guess Woodrow Wilson.
Didja see the pix of the decrepit Ft Bragg barracks? You would think sometime while 82nd paratroopers were in Afghanistan for FIFTEEN MONTHS someone could have spent money to paint and fix up the plumbing.
Proposed new army reg: no one may bring digital cell phone cameras into any barracks. It’s a national security issue. If parents and potential recruits see the substandard accomodations for single soldiers, we’ll get fewer volunteers for the Global War.
Sawgunner, this is the second time you’ve mentioned those pictures and the barracks. I have not seen them. Where do I go?
All right, I googled. Found two pictures. One with a flood in a bathroom with a lot of sinks. Shouldn’t happen, but that seems fixable, and the soldier in the picture seems to have been working on it. The other picture I saw — well, I’ve never seen a toilet seat like that! How it came to be in that condtion is beyond me. Definitely needs to be replaced. The bad things about pictures, though, is that you catch one moment in time, and it may not be like that all the time.
The bad toilet seat? Well you know, those things are really expensive see, and so it’s cheaper to repair it. You know how those government contracters are with their expensive thousand dollar toilet seats…
NJL,
I’m with Sawgunner. If we are going to send our boys out to these places and risk their lives, the least we can do is fix up the place before we get back. Some jerk just didn’t think about it til someone rightfully raised a stink about it.
And the cellphone picture ban? We oughta shove that right back down their throat.
Ike’s comment was accurate but incomplete. Laws never stop sin nor establish moral ideals. But that is not their intention. Do we stop oulawing murder because people kill anyway?
Laws are intrinsically moral valuations. They may be insufficient in creating moral behavior but they are necessary to defining and undergirding what a society determines its morality should be.
Adios: You’ve earned yourself the coffee of the day. Enjoy!
Over on Boundless e-zine, Andree and others are talking about writing for those who are interested: http://www.boundless.org/
I’m starting to get upset that our returning service members have to pay their way home once they hit the states after 15 months in Iraq. They are only allowed 1 bag on the airlines and they have to pay for extra weight and bags wich in some cases costs than their tickets in the first place.
I don’t remember paying my way home once the boat got back to North Island from Nam and I know I didn’t pay for extra baggage either.
With the bad barracks thing and poor medical care that has been exposed I’m starting to think we need some better leadership in the senior officer corp and some Generals and Admirals heads should roll.
I am thankful the lefties who hate the war are not showing up at airports to spit on our servicemen. I guess they got the word they would be stopped this time and we all know they are really woosies and scared to death about everything anyway especially things that will never kill them.
llama: Something over 1.5 million guys were in and out of Vietnam. I have only ever seen one or two who were spit at upon their return. Don’t you think it might be time to let that particular “lefty” transgression go?
As for the flights and baggage, you don’t really think the government should impose upon big business to discomfit itself for such a silly purpose, do you??? You know, free markets and all that…
Arcadia,
Nope; it’d be nice to see big business honor the military (and earn loyalty) by discounting tickets, not charging for baggage, or even allowing them to fly for free.
Probably not gonna happen, but I’d fly an airline that does.
Military discounts for airline travel became negligible years ago. Once upon a time there were real discounts.
Arcadia, I lived through the Vietnam era, too, and I saw the same guys come home. They were often ostracized, looked down on and treated with disrespect. I remember many events, picnics, etc., where when the ladies went off doing their thing, the men broke down into two groups — the guys who’d been in Vietnam and those who hadn’t. At least the lefties learned that they were wrong to hold government policy against a soldier and now the lefties only talk about it with their own.
MIM, I’m not against Sawgunner’s position. The toilet seat did it for me. All I’m saying is let’s make sure it’s the truth that the problems which need to be remedied are consistently there. If so, blow the lid off it.
There have been reams of paper and gallons of ink about the effects of the lack of heroe’s welcome for our military when they came back from VietNam, and all Arcadia can say is:
” I have only ever seen one or two who were spit at upon their return. Don’t you think it might be time to let that particular “lefty” transgression go?”
Unbelievable..
MiM,NJL,Cameron:
As one who spent several years very actively trying to end that war, but who never would have dreamed of spitting on a returning soldier (but maybe, just maybe one of the National Guardsman trying to clear me out of the streets), I’m just sick and tired of that shibboleth.
I can also assure you that an awful lot of draftees I knew would have spit upon themselves were it possible after being forced to do what they did in Vietnam.
As for the segregation that NJL mentions I think that that is an almost universal occurrence–war fighting is a terrible experience and forges bonds and understandings which can only really be understood by those who were there. It’s pretty hard to sit around and talk about bowling scores and cars after those experiences. There’s a really good reason why there are so many different veterans’ groups.