My Creed
I wrote this as part of a comment on someone else's blog. In one of my rare moments of clarity, I realized it sums up exactly how I feel. I thought I would share it:
"I support my country. I support our troops. Do not confuse my protest of this war, and of this administration, with a lack of patriotism. Our loyalty to the President should be to the measure with which he faithfully serves the interests of the United States. If I feel he is not serving those interests, it would be unpatriotic for me to NOT dissent."
If you are so moved, feel free to use this. I would prefer attribution, but it's not necessary. I'd rather get that message out.
Now, somewhere in the musty back attic of my mind, a voice tells me that at least part of this creed is similar in substance to something someone else said about loyalty to the President. I tried to find the quote, but I don't remember enough of it to attribute it. If this rings a bell with someone and can point me to the quote, I will of course make those attributions.
Yeharr
"I support my country. I support our troops. Do not confuse my protest of this war, and of this administration, with a lack of patriotism. Our loyalty to the President should be to the measure with which he faithfully serves the interests of the United States. If I feel he is not serving those interests, it would be unpatriotic for me to NOT dissent."
If you are so moved, feel free to use this. I would prefer attribution, but it's not necessary. I'd rather get that message out.
Now, somewhere in the musty back attic of my mind, a voice tells me that at least part of this creed is similar in substance to something someone else said about loyalty to the President. I tried to find the quote, but I don't remember enough of it to attribute it. If this rings a bell with someone and can point me to the quote, I will of course make those attributions.
Yeharr
posted by Balloon Pirate at 7:00 AM
22 Comments:
I posted this and credited it to you on my byline.
Hey, I found out Robyn and I are related, and not disantly. The family doen't know he's a transvestite. I've thought about telling them since he's such a hypocrite, being both a republican and a cross-sresser, but decided that wouldn't fall under the category of "doing no harm".
Why the hell not, eddie? Isn't this the tactics taken by those of your ilk during the previous administration? I would think you would be all for an open-minded debate about the issues.
It's yours if you want it.
PC--I commented on your blog.
Yeharr
Thank you for stopping by and posting a response on my blog regarding American support of the troops. I respect the fact that everyone has an opinion about the war, President Bush, and patriotism.
While I do not share your beliefs on "the administration", I do appreciate the insight into your thought process. As for Ms. Sheehan, I think that she is still being used as a political prop. Her pain, anger, and grief (which I truly believe is real for her)are being exploited by several groups of people.
Also, I'd just like to say thank you for raising a son that would be willing to defend his country despite his personal feelings about the person running it.
Eddie and I have been having a discussion. Though he has deleted almost all of my comments, even though they were completely harmless, he agreed to answer one of my questions. Go check it out quick, before he deletes it.
He deleted it, as well as my posts. He said he was deleting 'rude' comments, so I took all the rudeness out of it, and reposted it. He deleted that one as well.
Then I called him on it, and he deleted that as well. He must be sitting at his desk, reading blogs and deleting them as fast as he can! So bush of him, in both senses of the word.
Well, here's the re-edited version of my comment on his blog. Those of you playing at home can go to eddie's blog through his ID on his comment at the top of the page. And eddie: You are a coward.
______________________________________________________
eddie. nice map. pretty colors. what i find interesting is that your map only shows geographical information. What it doesn't show is that most of that 'red' state area is devoid of population.
That huge red expanse across the midsection has far more cows than people.
So unless your neighbor's a cow, you could probably talk all you want. I hear cows get pretty tetchy when someone disagrees with them.
If you or your readers would like to see this map resized to include population, you could just go here:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/
or for a really cool 3D model, go here:
http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/
Let's break it down even simpler:
If you put 100 people at random into a big room, statistics say there would be only four more bush voters than Kerry. Actually, it would only be three people, with a Naderite wandering around someplace outside the door. Doesn't matter how ya slice it, eddie, this guy's got no mandate.
And out of those 53 bush people in this hypothetical room, a growing number of them are starting to regret voting for the guy.
Those 48 Kerry supporters? They're all resisting the urge to say "I told you so."
Sadder fact of the day:
The U.S. savings rate has plummeted since 1980, from over 10% to under 1%.
Yeharr
True, thous gh he says he doesn't have the time to do that because he doesn't work for the govenment. Or at least that's what he said, and then deleted.
The quote you're referring to is Mark Twain. He said you should be loyal to your country, not to your government. To be loyal to a government is like being loyal to a pile fo clothes. They are useful when new and pretty, but it is foolish to be loyal to them when they are worn out and nothing but rags. They cannot serve you properly when in that condition. He says it much better, but that's the jist.
I like mine better.
Yeharr
Is that a nice way of saying that George B is a drunken reject from the muppet show who you wouldn't trust to run a hardware store, let alone the most powerful country in the world?
I have exactly the same feelings about the UK. I am proud to be British despite the fact that Tony is a smug, slimy, war mongering compulsive liar for whome the phrase 'needs a good kicking' was probably invented.
Don't mince words, Rich...tell us what you really think.
Thanks, Colleen. Always nice to get validation from someone you admire.
Yeharr
BP, however I may agree or disagree with your opinions, I fully understand your sentiment. This is a nation born of dissent and fed with dissent and we require dissent to continue to grow. How can we look at things that we can not see and give voice to?
Dead on
And almost as important, Mallory: How can other Americans dismiss protesters as unpatriotic?
Yeharr
Old topic but still interesting.
Sorry BP...I failed to make that point clear, it is part of our heritage and should never be considered unpatriotic.
I have a friend who went to prison rather than serve in Nam. I consider him a patriot for standing up, giving voice and accepting the consequences.
Just don't let it get to the point where words may be harmful to the troops in any way.
How can words of dissent be harmful to the troops, Shawn? We don't hate them. In fact, we're RELATED to them. This war is bullshit, and i's about freakin' time someone called Bush on it. How are you helping your country today?
If you were a soldier in Iraq, would like to hear news reports of people saying the war is "bullshit" and that the commander-in-chief is a "terrorist?" Don't get me wrong - I believe dissent is okay, but I don't want the troops to be demoralized and the enemies bolstered.
I spoke to a soldier in Iraq today, Shawn. When did you last speak to a soldier in Iraq?
They have other things to worry about than what popular opinion of the war happens to be at the moment.
And whatever the popular opinnion of the war is, they know almost none of the animus is being leveled at the soldiers who are fighting this war.
Two weeks ago, I was at a military base, shawn. I was very careful to not say anything that would be construed as negative toward the war or the soldiers who are fighting it. In fact, I avoided speaking about the subject altogether, and just listened when the topic came up. None of the soldiers I met had any desire to be going over there. None of them had anything good to say about the president, either. They didn't say anything bad, but there was no gung-ho. They all spoke in carefully worded sentences, the kind you have to listen to what's NOT being said to understand what's being said.
The growing anger in this country is not directed at the soldiers, shawn, and the soldiers that I talked to know that. Perhaps there are others who don't. I don't know.I don't make generalizations very often, shawn--I only speak from what I have observed, or from reports that I can attribute.
Again, how many have you talked to?
And one other thing: I believe you've been asked this question before, shawwn, and I don't believe you've answered it: how old are you? Are you of military age--meaning late teens to mid-thirties? Are you in the service? If not, why not? Why aren't you over there yourself?
The one thing that all the troops that I talked to had in common was this: a disdain, bordering on disgust, for flag-waving conservatives who are all for the war, but don't actually do anything to help. They don't enlist, and they don't let their kids enlist. Hell, they even buy magnetic ribbons for their SUV's because they won't even sacrifice their paint jobs.
If you like this war, fight it.
Yeharr
If I were a soldier in Iraq, I would want my government to tell the TRUTH!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I am 26 and I have talked to a recuiter more than once. I don't qualify - that's all.
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