Sunday, May 29, 2005

Modern Memorial

I was out the other night and met a couple of Marines who were out during fleet week.

After talking for a couple and learning they had served in Iraq, and were heading back soon. I thanked them for their service, saying that I had no way of knowing if my thanks were important, but that we appreciate their sacrifice on our behalf.

One of the Marines looked at me with a tear in his eye and said, 'you have no idea how much that means to us to hear.' It turns out that many of them had come to New York expecting to be villified. One of the guys I was talking to had recently been back home to Boston and had been asked to leave two bars.

I explained that my friends and I had been discussing that (despite being liberals who were againt them being sent to war) we hoped they were treated with the respect they deserved in our city. What's more, I feel like my duty to those serving in a war that I disagree with is to try and protect those soldiers.

These men went to war because the only way for us to be safe is to have soldiers who know how to follow orders. It is our job to make sure that their effort is not wasted. It is our job to keep the government and the military honest, to protect these soldiers and to keep the institution intact for those who may want to serve in the future.

That's my duty to the young officer from a little town in KY who had a week off from service and was scared to come to New York in a completely different way than he was scared to go to Iraq. Our soldiers deserve better.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi. I have no idea how I ended up in your blog, but I just wanted to say I agree with you. Men who serve their country like soldiers do deserve all of our respect and consideration. This comes from an argentinian person, by the way, but you see, no matter where you're from, situations like this exists everywhere.
Thanks for the space. Hope you're well.
A. C. - Buenos Aires, Argentina.

11:19 PM  

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