I know I said that I originally started this blog not to be a political sounding board but a sounding board for my various rants and raves. Unfortunately, the posts lately have been on the political side. This one may seem to be no different but I submit that this post is more of a reality check than a political post. This reality check is brought to you by the one year anniversary of the death of a friend who grew up just 3 houses down the street from me. On August 22, 2007, Staff Sergeant Jason Payton died in a helicopter crash with 13 other men and women in our armed forces outside of the town of Tikrit. The crash, deemed to be non-hostile in nature, was ironically on its way to drop the soldiers off after completing a successful mission. This was Jason's second tour in Iraq with one or two more in Afghanistan, where he was involved in an ambush that nearly claimed his life then. When the crash occurred, he was just three weeks away from turning in his weapons and beginning the trek back home. He was to be married the next month after he returned home. Jason was the 3,714 US death in Iraq.
Regardless of your opinions on the war or the current administration, I hope you at least are grateful there are people like Jason that are currently serving to protect us and the innocent. I know he loved the Army and was pursuing a career in the Special Forces. The image of looking at his body in the coffin two weeks after the crash will never leave my mind. He was tiny and looked like a kid but when he was alive, he was bigger than life and always happy. At the time of this post, there have been 4,146 deaths of US service men and women in Iraq. I still support the war and hope that all those who are serving will be able to return home safe and sound. One thing I am proud of is that when our service men and women come home from duty, they are… for the most part… treated with respect and dignity. I am a firm believer in our military and also believe that you can be against the war and still support the troops. I also believe that you can be against the war and be patriotic.
As I mentioned in my previous posts, I consider myself to be conservative. In fact, I am probably a little more than most "conservatives". I "align" myself with the Republican Party not because I want to or feel the need to belong to a group but because I agree with their stances… most of them. I am not a "Compassionate Conservative" as our President calls himself or whatever the party's new buzzword is this day. I am a realistic conservative. I would say that I am socially and fiscally conservative yet I have stances that some would say is "liberal", like that word is a curse word or something. I am also a realistic American in that I will vote for someone that I believe A) will be the best President and will lead America down a path that I believe will be the most beneficial to this country and B) that I agree with. Why in the name of God is it important or "newsworthy" how many homes a candidate has? How will that affect how he, or she, would be as the President of the United States? I agree with the disclosure of financial records because I would be a little untrusting of someone that cannot manage their own finances and would be entrusted with the finances of the US. The media today takes a position and backs a candidate (McCain for Fox News… they are fair and balanced… and Obama for MSNBC and the Communist News Network (CNN) because, as you know, CNN equals Politics) but of course they would deny that they favor one or the other. The media should report the news… facts only… and if they want to add commentary then by all means do so but at least mark it as that, Commentary. We should ask ourselves if the story the media is presenting to us realistically matter in the grand scheme of things. I would venture to bet that most of what they say doesn't.
While being realistic is important, we still need to be dreamers. After all, the next big change and great advancement in our society will be from those who still appreciate being unrealistic… every once in a while. It is finding the right balance that will always be just beyond our fingertips but it is important that we never stop trying to grab it.
1 comment:
Interesting as always. This is something I've been trying to explain to people for a long time- you can support the troops and be against the war. I'm all for providing our troops with the material, intelligence, and field support they need. I'm also for giving them the incredible amounts of support they need when they return home. I'm proud that we have the best trained troops in the world and that, for the most part, we provide them the best material for their situation. In the end, it's the guys at the top that decide to go to war and its the troops on the ground that die and leave families behind. So my beef is with the brass, not the soldiers. They are doing a great job, even if, in my opinion, it's a job that is not what it's purported to be.
I'd also like to say that you're right about the media. They don't report "facts" and there's too much published as "analysis" that should be labeled as "opinion" or "commentary". And I do think that McCain's housing situation was over-reported, much like Obama's European tour. But I would like to point out that the McCain housing bit is important in its own way. I mean, if you don't know how many houses you own, that to me says 1) you don't have a very good handle on your own finances (which are probably being handled by an accountant anyway) so how are you going to have a grip on the complex American finance system (i.e. economy) and 2) you're extremely far from being in touch with the vast majority of American's who either have zero houses or one that they are struggling to pay for. To be fair, it was a question that is slightly off-putting, maybe a little inappropriate, and something you're not really prepared for (I mean...how often do you really have to answer it?). It's something that, to me, matters much less than his stances on major national and international issues but still something that needs to be addressed by McCain.
A question for you: what do you think of Palin as VP? I'm assuming you know more about her than I do. Do you think she made the ticket because Obama got the nod and Hillary was so close, or do you think McCain chose the best person for the job regardless of the Democratic campaign results? Do you think the media is over-hyping the pregnant daughter thing already? Obviously, we're not voting for the daughter, so does it matter at all?
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