USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ E-Mail a Thank You to someone in the Military ~ April 17 2003

An apology is LONG overdue to many, and the list has become longer over the past couple of days. The farce goes on.

Start another thread tomorrow night.
Put it in the back room.
Call it "Bash Tonk night"
Ping everyone you want.
I'll come
Good night

Its so sad to see so many leave this thread. I know Im not a regular poster but I have come here a lot to listen & learn.

Please dont let the events of the past week or so on this thread make everyone forget why we come here. All the troops past and present need to know we care.

A LESSON TO MY SON
by A PROUD AMERICAN Irma S. Chambers

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My
husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the
Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our
country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our
front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what you
see?" "I see trees a nd cars and our neighbors houses." he replied. "OK, now I
want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of
America and you are President Bush."
Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and
yard on this block is a different country." my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending..."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man come
out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her.
You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the
ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are
afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do nothing
because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of this
son....what do you do?"& nbsp;

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?!"

"I call the police, Dad..."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call,
listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then
son?!"

"Dad, but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your
place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to
look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is
Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door
neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get
involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my
husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

" What do you do son ?"

Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help
and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out
his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door
and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and
then...he kills her. He tur ns around and sees you standing in he window and
laughs at you. "Daddy..."

What do you do son?

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds,
Daddy."

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him... "Why?"

"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who need it....and
they won't help....You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP
neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm
afraid....I can't do it by myself...Daddy.....I can't look out my window and
just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do
nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds....so I can't see what he's
doing........and I'm going to pretend t hat it is not happening."

I start to cry.

My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking
pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells
him...."Son"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Open the blinds because that man....he's at your front door..."What do you
do?!"
My son looks at his father, anger and d efiance in his eyes. He balls up
this tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he
says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER,
DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and
hugs him tight, and cries..."It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and
he's already at YOU R front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he
killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone,
before......it's too late." my husband whispers. THAT scenario I just gave you
is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen is
the great est EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free
nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove
this evil man from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where
we are not afraid to look out our window and see crimes on humanity. So that
my n ine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just
"closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him. Today the
second day of "WAR on IRAQ" I felt compelled to write this and pass it along.

Hopefully, you will understand the lesson my husband tried to teach our son.

"YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!"
BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT!
BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!!
SUPPORT THEM!!!
SUPPORT AMERICA!!
SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN
WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...."

We Will Fight For The Right To Live In Freedom

Thank you for that sensitive and heartfelt post.

I dont think a lot of people realize why some of us come here. Im a Military Mom with little or no knowledge about the Military inner workings, even with 2 son serving you'd be suprized at how little they share. The sights and sounds of what they see while serving in a war cannot be explained to anybody who wasnt there, and to protect their Mom's from unneccessary grief. My reasons for coming here were twofold...
1. to be able to says thanks to those who had served
2. to find out how I could help those who are.

Since I found out they were being deployed I went on my own mission so to speak. I unofficially adopted my sons unit...all 28 of them. I've gotten friends, coworkers, neighbors involved in collecting comfort items, cards and letters to send to them. The response I got from the guys has been tremendous and the wishlist of goodies they liked would fill a notebook. I've been sending them packages since they left the states, I dont even know if they are getting them while they were on the move but Im sure that soon enough they will catch up with all of them.

The Canteen has been a big help in giving me ideas and a better understanding of what they go though. Please dont let this thread die out as it has been a major resource of information

New thread

Mornin', everybody ! Happy Friday !

70 degrees as I post this, headin' for around - whoa! - 88 degrees. Possible T-storms too!

Have a cup while you FReep !

For those who prefer hot chocolate.....

Well this says 64, which seems more like what I would expect right now . . .

Currently

WFAA 5-Day outlook (Watch the video forecast)

Overcast

Temp: 64
Humidity: 80 %
Barometric: 29.8 in.
Wind: SE 7 mph

Friday

Hi 88
Lo 68

T-Storms

Saturday

Hi 82
Lo 48

T-Storms

Sunday

Hi 74
Lo 54

Mostly Clear

Monday

Hi 78
Lo 58

Mostly Clear

Tuesday

Hi 79
Lo 62

Mostly Cloudy

you are sick......
LOL

So glad to see you back!

Amen. The Canteen is a beautiful concept and it is people like yourself who it should be here for. All of us came to the Canteen with a purpose that centered around the military. All honorable people with honorable intentions. It is unfortunate when some seem to forget that and consider people expendable.

Thank you for what you do for our troops.

Thanks, Care!

Hey Kathy in Alaska - very cool welcome post! Thanks. JLO

I realize that it has been a few days since anyone has posted here on this particular thread. I realize that some of the very ugliest posts from this thread here have been deleted.

Those who would come to this special place with the sole aim of disrupting the Canteen are abominable indeed.

I have recently read reports of how close my very own son came to death in the service of our Nation during this most recent conflict. I am contemptuous of the contentious persons who would present themselves as guardians of the Canteen.

Reasonable people indeed will often disagree. The behaviour here in this thread by certain individuals is beyond what anyone could rationally consider to be "reasonable" or even civil.

There are a few out here who's posts are irrational, and their "Raison d'etre" is illogical IMHO. Their stated reasons for posting truly offensive remarks are summed up in this one statement which follows.

When you suggest by your posted remarks that the Canteen is not for "the Troops", then you are engaging in convoluted reasoning indeed. You are illogical, and cynical, and clearly contrary by nature. There is nothing positive in your posts. If you would care to send me an E-mail where we could engage in a private discourse concerning our differences, I would welcome it. I do not think that you will do such a thing. You do not have the sack for it, you are the true cowards.

You refer to the Light, well I can talk about the Light quite as well as any other.

I submit the postulation that you are unfamiliar with "light" and I also submit the notion that you are indeed representative of the very dark side of the forces which impact all of our lives. In other words Brainiac, you have demons that you need to contend with. I feel that you should stay out of our little support group unless you have something positive and uplifting to add. This goes for the group of you. You all plain and simply disgust me. If you do not understand my words, a quick view of your very own posts should suffice. Your posts are disgraceful.

Those of you who post in such fashion are no friend of our Troops, and that is quite obvious to any rational and thinking person.

I hold no personal animosity toward any. I am who I am, and that is just a simple FReeper with a concern for the morale of our Troops. Some of you clearly do not have the troops as a priority in your posts. Your agenda is something that is foreign indeed to me. The Canteen is an inspired concept, and certain of you have shown nothing but disdain for those of us who actually "get it."

I truly hope that someday you might all "get it", that is the Gods honest truth.