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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] How NOT to judge
  • Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 23:11:57 -0800

Well, this ties in with your last e-mail. Unfortunately, the various arms of the service have spent a lot of time not sticking to truth in advertising. They target poor neighborhoods/schools. Those kids make the news.

The kids who make a choice to join, those who work to get what they want, they don't make the news.

So, no one does their homework.

Kirk CHOOSE to go into the military. No one came knocking on his door or bothered him at school, ah cause he didn't attend one <g> That was his CHOICE. He has the next 20 to 30 years planned. This was a well thought out CAREER decision.

TJ obviously did the same. Eyes wide open.

However, Kirk and TJ aren't going to be looked at when folks do their judging. They will be considered the exceptions.

People conveniently forget ROTC, forget the military academies, forget the number of kids whose parents are in the military and it's a family tradition and the Kirks and TJs. Those make up about 2/3s of the folks in the military, or more.

I think DH is right when he says that the average American "only wants to smell the bad smells."

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


I can't sleep...lot's going on in my life right now..this
thread/conversation is officially bothering me now.

As you know, my son turned down a 4 year scholarship to join the Navy.
He scored super high on the SAT(old score 1590) and the ACT tests(lowest
was 32- two 35's and a 34. He could have gone anywhere he wanted to go
to school, IF that is what he wanted to do. He was accepted to multiple
colleges but choose Berry and Georgia Tech as it was close to home and
offered him the dual degree scholarship he was seeking. Joining the
Navy was not a desperate act for him. He had choices.


On this list, we are a bunch of folks who have gone our own way. We
have, in varying degrees, separated ourselves from the mainstream-in
lifestyle, in thought, in the way we school(or not) our kids...all
around we pretty much march to a different drummer. Many of us here
have made a choice of voluntary simplicity. Those on the outside, they
will never understand why choose 'less' when you can have more. They
just don't see the value in our "lesser" choice. We see the value, and
know that even if the mainstream labels our choices as less, they have
value and in the grand scheme of things, our choices are GREATER, not
lesser.

So here we are, talking about military service, and I think some folks
see that service as a lesser choice. They just do not seem to
understand that people very often sign up for service because they feel
a sense of duty, an obligation for continuity, and a sense of pride that
they can make a difference. There are many reasons for joining the
military.

It saddens me to see that we, even some of us on this list, have
traveled so far down the road of AmericaBashing, that we have lost sight
of the fact that some people see value in serving their country, whether
country itself is right or wrong in actions. So many people now see that
service as a "lesser" choice or a last choice or even an only
choice(they could have made more money elsewhere, they could have gone
to college, there were no other jobs, etc.) when in reality, the
enlistee only saw the value and the need.

In my history on this list, I have remained quiet on political topics
until these last few months. Sometimes I have been in a majority, but
mostly my opinion is/has been/would be the minority opinion. I am
certain things will not change in this thread.

Maybe we should ALL take a step back and remember not to judge and make
assumptions, be it about Barack Obama or George Bush or all those kids
who are serving their country.

Bev


EarthNSky wrote:

Enlistment percentages may be mostly an indication of family
financial status, boys and girls who find no better choice.

I don't think of
military enlistment today as an expression of patriotism or as
indicating feelings toward military enterprises or wars in general.


I
believe that the lowest per capita incomes are in the South.


My curiosity was whether the apparently ongoing Southern feelings
about the Civil War would translate into a greater antipathy toward
war in general. Not sure how that might be measured. Where's our
resident sociologist?



--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky
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