Wow, don't look now but your public school education is showing. Your ignorance and ungratefulness belong on DU.
Posted on 04/05/2008 12:35:15 AM PDT by Dominnae
As with all guest opinions, I welcome a guest opinion offering an opposing view.
This is not the United States of America that I went to war for.
I put my life on the line in WWII, as did countless other soldiers, for the following beliefs: - The right to life, including the life of the unborn child.
- The right to pray to God in the classroom and the right to carry a Bible to school; also, to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and use the word God in the pledge.
- The right to display the Ten Commandments in public places. The 1st amendment to the Constitution in short states that Congress will not establish (or recognize) a specific religion and proclaim it a state religion. How can a politically-appointed judge toss the Bible and prayer out of the school classroom when words like these can even be understood by a grade school student? This nation was created on the trust of Christianity and almighty God, nothing else.
(Excerpt) Read more at galesburg.com ...
I've been here awhile- this is first article. Apologies if I messed up! I saw this and had to share.
I understand the major point, but his generation was a big part of the end of America.
Think of the sixties, who was age 36 to 55 in 1965?
Who ran everything, wrote everything, filmed everything?
Most of the worst of the destruction of America (legislatively) had ended by 1974, when boomers ranged from age ten to age 28.
Not to suffer the mighty flames of the FreeRepublic...but I served and fought...and didn’t do it for political reasons. I think I’m amongst a pretty hefty group...that fought to win...period. This is the sole difference that stands against almost every military on Earth...the majority of us fight for the conviction of winning...we won’t accept losing. That was proven in the Revolutionary War and has continued on today.
We’ve got an awful lot Americans who have made everything done today...as a political statement. The entire war in Iraq has turned into a Republican versus Democrat situation. If I brought up a 1,000 vets of the war...they will tell you nothing of politics...just of heroes and the rough life of being on the winning side.
We had to sit there this week and hear the CBS geeks tell us that 81 percent of the public think we are going in the wrong direction. The media has twisted both sides of the political world in such a manner...that even the public is in a state of mass confusion.
People now want to sit there and believe in former America...which they think was better. Things were better when Tom Brokaw was doing the news. Things were better when Three’s Company was on the air. Things were better when Ford made poorly-manufactured cars that broke in six months. Things were better when you had a choice of only butter or margarine...and none of these 48 other butter-like devices. Things were better when Hollywood Squires had Peter Marshall hosting and Jonathon Winters & Charo as guests. Things were better when there was no designated hitter in baseball. Things were better when being a Republican didn’t mean that you were a Baptist. Things were better when most folks didn’t know more than three senators total. Things were better when Curt Gowdy did baseball announcing on NBC. Things were better when gas cost 70 cents and your local station didn’t sell anything but actual car parts and oil items. Life was better when McDonalds only made burgers from real American beef. Life was better when it was just the New Jersey and New York Mafia running crime in America. Life was better when you only had three local channels and that stupid state educational channel available. Life was better when no one regulated wetlands, dry lands or tundra areas. Life was better when baseball players were drunks and not steroid users. Life was better when you didn’t care how many calories were in cheese or Campbell’s soup. Life was better when TV ran racy TV shows like Baywatch. Life was better when Jed Clampett could settle a score by just uttering a comment of “well....doggy”. Life was better when Ford only had six colors that you could have your car delivered in. Life was better when men hunted and fished...instead of sitting around the basement office today and interneting. Life was better when CBS didn’t have enough money to run stupid polls....so they actually squandered their funds on real news rather than inventing news.
So I will step down off my pulpit and be rendered flame after flame. But the simple truth is...we haven’t lost nothing...except our vision of ourselves.
I respectfully disagree... we’ve lost a great deal of freedom because of our governments. From health ministers dictating smoking rules, food and what-not to drilling, construction, firearms, and even the Boy Scouts.
“I’m ashamed of you, the politician, who have robbed our citizens of their freedom, little by little, over the past 50 years. I’m also ashamed of we, the voters, who have allowed our elected officials to steal our freedom from us.”
Good post.
Well said, to this old soldier. We would do well to heed.
“Under God” wasn’t added to the pledge until the 1950’s.
And a small, limited government wouldn’t permit Congress to rewrite the works of dead authors against the wishes of their family.
We've allowed the MSM to dictate our policies, elect our officials and run us into the ground by giving coverage to only those things they deem newsworthy or fit their political agenda....and the GP has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
FreeRepublic, Rush, Hannity are all a threat to the dark side....and it's keeping the battle alive.
Did our soldiers die so that millions could invade our country without so much as a single soldier on the border to repel them?
The "politicians" continue to allow our country to be invaded. They even want to reward the invaders with citizenship.
When will America wake up?
All those things you mentioned? Most of them are cultural affectations. Get down to the real truth about the nation.
Things were better when govt gave something in return for your taxes. Things were better when there were not millions of invaders marching in the streets demanding rights. Things were better when south american gangs weren't in almost every state.
Things were better when you could voice your opposition to a candidate within sixty days of an election without going to court. Things were better when NO ONE would have thought of forcing second graders to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in spanish.
Things were better when schools took a common sense approach to discipline instead of prosecuting children for giving an aspirin to a friend.
Things were better when govt didn't think only they had a right to teach your children and that home schooling was not a parental right.
The list goes on. Almost all of your points are cultural or, in the case of TV characters, non-existant. Good day.
From my perspective, the Greatest Generation seems have been, sadly for them and us, not so great but full of human flaws. They emerged from depression and war alienated from historical America and fixated on the Almighty Dollar. They cluelessly sold us out (or acquiesced in the sale) in the 1960s to liberalism and mass immigration.
Sure they beat Japan and Germany, medium sized nation-states that could never have threatened our homeland, while they partnered-up with communism and the third world that can and will sweep us all away.
Thanks Greatest.
From Hillsdale College’ Impris, a terrific article on the history of US and a Limited and Just Government:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp
I caught that too, I well remember the confusion it caused my young and mushy mind when it was changed between my first and second year in school.
Every day my first grade teacher led us in the pledge, the second grade teacher did not. Third grade teacher did require it.
Further, I went to public school in a fairly conservative and religious area in southern Missouri for 12 years and never once heard anyone praying in class, student or teacher, in a time when it was legal to do so.
You nailed it. This subject is sort of “the elephant in the room” when it comes to our “Greatest Generation”. This WWII generation is who spawned and raised the sixties and seventies “Me Generation” arguably our worst generation. Sadly, when the Vietnam War came around, the WWII generation who was at the apex of their power in politics and business during that period, ensure through various legislations and decisions such as draft deferments, not calling up the Reserves, etc, that their precious babies would not have to go serve. The epitimey of hypocrisy for sure...
I loved every word of it. Our politicians have become no more than professional hucksters who manipulate us.
The people most involved with our Federal government are the people who want money from it. Just take a look at Washington, D.C.
>We’ve allowed the MSM to dictate our policies, elect our officials and run us into the ground by giving coverage to only those things they deem newsworthy or fit their political agenda....and the GP has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.<
Very true and if you think the few thousand FReepers are going to change it you are wrong because the AMERICAN business world is NOT on our side either. They want the illegal aliens here as a source of cheap labor, they also see the queers a a source of big money. Don’t think so? McDonalds just announced that they have signed onto a nationwide effort to promote “gay” and “lesbian” business ventures. We, us straight, normal, working people are the minority when it comes to political power these days. Without the media on your side, you lose. Simple, huh?
So until we are willing to get off our asses, get out in the streets and make some newsworthy issues that get TV coverage, our country will continue to go down the drain.
My life is pretty good, and I'd like to thank our vets for that.
You are right to say that the Greatest Generation was not necessarily great in every respect. They allowed the 60s to happen. Why? How were they raised to allow this to occur? Were parents the fault? Thia goes back a long way. part may have been the result of the Scopes Trial. Many Christians, especially the Fundamentalists who believed the Bible, decided to abandon the culture because they were being ridiculed. They created their own separate culture. This is a multi-generational decline. No single generation is solely to blame. It will take a national revival and time of repentance in order to turn it around. Humanly speaking, I don’t see that happening. American is going broke, not only financially, but more importantly in its spiritual and moral values, and it will pay the price like other previous nation.
“This WWII generation is who spawned and raised the sixties and seventies “Me Generation” arguably our worst generation. Sadly, when the Vietnam War came around, the WWII generation who was at the apex of their power in politics and business during that period, ensure through various legislations and decisions such as draft deferments, not calling up the Reserves, etc, that their precious babies would not have to go serve.”
Actually my point was that the Americans that ruled from roughly 1930 to 1974 doomed America, if anything the following generations, including boomers seem to have slowed the destructive impulses of the previous generations.
As far as serving in the military the WWII generation was 2/3 drafted, but the second largest group of warriors, the boomers were 2/3 volunteers.
“”Vietnam Vets: 9.7% of their generation. 9,087,000 military
personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era (Aug 5,
1964-May 7,1975). 8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the
war (Aug 5, 1964-March 28, 1973).””
“” 25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees.
(66% of US armed forces members were drafted during WWII).
* Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in
Vietnam.
* Reservists killed: 5,977.
* National Guard: 6,140 served, 101 died.
* Total draftees (1965-73)1,728,344.
* Actually served in Vietnam 38%.
* Marine Corps draft: 42,633.
* Last draftee: June 30, 1973.
Hill Dems petition Bush on Iraq - Democrats Letter to President Bush April 4, 2008
Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Paperback)
by David Horowitz (Author)
and a review:
********************************
Communism is dead. Long live Islam!,
| By | Kevin Beckman (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews |
“”I question the accuracy of your data concerning reserves and guard serving in Vietnam. Actually, I don’t believe them.”
Well, that is nice, but wouldn’t it be better for you to just post the correct numbers, if you don’t believe those?
Yeah, probably so. But, being that I lived the history I do know that ER’s and NG’s did not serve in Vietnam in any significant numbers other than a few exceptions. However, a much different story in our current war with Radical Islamism, these guys are doing some serious heavy lifting this go round - my hat is off to them.
I think I will just stick with the facts.
As far as serving in the military the WWII generation was 2/3 drafted, but the second largest group of warriors, the boomers were 2/3 volunteers.
“”Vietnam Vets: 9.7% of their generation. 9,087,000 military
personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era (Aug 5,
1964-May 7,1975). 8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the
war (Aug 5, 1964-March 28, 1973).””
“” 25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees.
(66% of US armed forces members were drafted during WWII).
* Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in
Vietnam.
* Reservists killed: 5,977.
* National Guard: 6,140 served, 101 died.
* Total draftees (1965-73)1,728,344.
* Actually served in Vietnam 38%.
* Marine Corps draft: 42,633.
* Last draftee: June 30, 1973.
btt
By the way I think that the various sites that list the almost six thousand reservists killed actually should be listed as serving in Vietnam, not as being killed, unless this has something to do with some kind of classifications of individuals such as pilots and such as mentioned in your post 28.
” More than 340,000 reservists served during the Vietnam War, and almost 6,000 were killed in Vietnam.”
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45704
“On May 13, 1968, 12,234 Army National Guardsmen in 20 units from 17 states were mobilized for service during the Vietnam War. Eight units deployed to Vietnam and over 7,000 Army Guardsmen served in the war zone. Company D (Ranger), 151st Infantry, Indiana Army National Guard arrived in Vietnam in December 1968. As part of the II Field Force, the Indiana Rangers were assigned reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering missions. Operating deep in enemy territory, Ranger patrols engaged enemy units while conducting raids, ambushes and surveillance missions. “Delta Company” achieved an impressive combat record during its tour in Vietnam; unit members were awarded 510 medals for valor and service.”
“For the National Guard a total of 8,728 members served in Vietnam and 97 fell in action.”
http://www.mnroa.org/0703/Research/vnseaunits/vietnam_research_1.htm
“No war since the Civil War produced so much opposition to the draft. Part of the problem had to do with its perceived unfairness. Undergraduates and, until 1968, graduate students could defer military service until they completed their programs, In addition, many young men, often from the middle class, joined the National Guard and Reserves on the likely gamble that they would not be called up for duty in Southeast Asia. Consequently, the Vietnam War appeared to many to be a “working-class war,” with draftees and enlisted men coming disproportionately from blue-collar backgrounds.”
Just for the record, any and all NG’s and ER’s who served in Vietnam were brave patriots for sure. But, to put this discussion back on track; the subject is about the WWII generation and their off-spring - the 60’s and 70’s Me Generation. The fact is, the WWII generation, raised during the depression, spoiled and doted on their children and went to great lengths to protect them from serving in Vietnam. There were deferments for college, national defense jobs, teachers, firemen, police. If these failed, then one would use whatever influence and political connections available to get into and guard or reserve unit as opening were very, very tight. In fact, virtually every pro sports team had a relationship with a guard or reserve unit to enable shielding their players from being drafted. The littney goes on and on.
Btw, about 2.5M served in Vietnam of which 6,140 were NG’s, comes to about 0.2%. About 58,000 KIA’s in Vietnam of which 101 were NG’s, comes to about 0.017%. Not significant percentages by anybody’s count. Anyway, cheers bub, gotta move on to other windmills...
National Guard:
6,140 served
101 died.
I don’t what your bugaboo with the reserves and Guard are, but it is a distraction from my point of the destructiveness of the WWII generation, and the draft thing is a little odd as well.
I didn’t believe in the draft either and I fought the draft, after winning my permanent deferment, I enlisted in the army and attended jump school. 9,000,000 American men of the “Vietnam Generation” served, about 2/3 of them volunteers.
WWII was fought by draftees, Vietnam was fought by volunteers.
Actually my point was that the Americans that ruled from roughly 1930 to 1974 doomed America, if anything the following generations, including boomers seem to have slowed the destructive impulses of the previous generations.
As far as serving in the military the WWII generation was 2/3 drafted, but the second largest group of warriors, the boomers were 2/3 volunteers.
“”Vietnam Vets: 9.7% of their generation. 9,087,000 military
personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era (Aug 5,
1964-May 7,1975). 8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the
war (Aug 5, 1964-March 28, 1973).””
“” 25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees.
(66% of US armed forces members were drafted during WWII).
* Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in
Vietnam.
Things change. No power on earth can stop change and no power in heaven seems interested in doing so.
The was only on Reserve unit in Mass, New Bedford, that was activated, a 155 Unit, they sued everyone to stay home. When they were deployed they went in as replacements, they broke the unit up.
The last Squad I was in was 100% RA an interesting bunch of Lunatics.
I don’t know why that poster got hung up on the NG Reserves thing, it doesn’t hold much importance to me, although I do like this particular guard unit.
“On 20 November 1969, Co D (Ranger), 151st Infantry (Airborne) ‘Stood Down’”
http://www.new75thrra.com/units/vn_hx/d151-his.htm
“I don’t what your bugaboo with the reserves and Guard are, but it is a distraction from my point of the destructiveness of the WWII generation, and the draft thing is a little odd as well.”
Actually, I don’t have a “bugaboo” with the reserves nor the guard, nor draftees for that matter. As a Vietnam Vet I honor and respect any and all who serve in whatever fashion. My “bugaboo” is with our “Greatest Generation” who exploited the reserves and guard by excluding them in the Vietnam War to any significant extent - thereby causing these organizations to be utilized as safe-havens for those seeking to avoid serving in Vietnam.
Concerning the draft, not sure how this drifted into the debate but I don’t believe I have up to this point stated a position on it. But, it’s a slow Sunday at my house and being that you brought it up I will give you my two bits. But first, I will say that the current all volunteer military that we now have is the best force we have ever fielded in all aspects measured, bar none. Nevertheless, the problem with the current all vol force is that it is made up from a very small demographic - that being the bottom end of the distribution starts with the lower middle class aka working class and tops out in the upper end of the middle class with the bulk coming from the center of this population. Those who are outside the tails of this distribution don’t serve. Also, today’s military personnel represents a very high percentage of what some might refer to as coming from a warrior class, that being from families who have members who have previously served. Not necessarily a bad thing but more and more often this population is performing more than their fair share of the load in my opinion.
Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that you and I are philosophically not that far apart if you will take the time to actually process what you are reading...
It was their belief they could hit a 100MP with that machine no sweat. By using a couple of hydraulic arms from a fork lift, they showed me how they could the tracks on and centered. These guys and gals are a lot smarter than my era. (RA, US Army 1969 -1972)
“Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that you and I are philosophically not that far apart if you will take the time to actually process what you are reading...”
That is probably true, and I am one of what is as far as I know, the largest group of warriors outside of WWII, the boomers of the Vietnam generation.
Forgive my saying so, but that's a rather ignorant statement. Is that what they're teaching in skool these days?
Beside being a madman, Hitler was an idiot. If he had left the war fighting to his rather capable Wehrmacht generals (except Goering), things in Europe would have been very different. The German war machine was way ahead of us in 1939.
Did you also know, that besides the attack on what would become out 50th State; there was also Japanese engagements on our 49th? Actual troops on the ground in the Aleutians there to set up a base, a toe hold from which they could begin operations on the NW US? Oh, and if we hadn't gotten lucky, and the Japs had sunk our carriers at Pearl...
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