Posted on 02/25/2007 8:33:03 AM PST by ContraryMary
DEAR ABBY: Our 17-year-old twin son and daughter met with military recruiters who came to their school and made the military sound exciting and glamorous. They are now saying that after they graduate next year, they want to join the military instead of going to college. They have even put up military posters in their rooms that they received from the recruiters.
My husband and I are horrified. We cannot stand the thought of them going off to war, and do not believe that war is the answer to the world's problems. It will be a year, and hopefully the novelty of the idea will wear off by then. However, I don't want to take a chance. How can I counter the idea? -- CLEVELAND MOM
DEAR CLEVELAND MOM: Before your children commit themselves to the idea that the military is all foreign travel, shiny medals and glory, they should see firsthand that there is a more serious side. Contact your nearest veterans hospital and inquire about you and your children paying some visits and volunteering to help wounded vets. It may be a sobering experience, but it should open their eyes in no time flat.
I wonder if Dear Abby would also recommend that girls see videos of abortion procedures and aborted fetuses prior to having an abortion.
I think you should write in and say exactly what you've said here. Horrible response by Dear Abby....but I'm not longer surprised by anything.
LOL! Maybe it was a recessive gene...
--here's the link to protest--
--http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/dearabby_form.html
As soon as I read this I thought, she's gonna catch a ton of flack. Wonder if she'll print it.
I did. Let's see if it gets published.
Give the vets more credit than that - I believe they would welcome the opportunity to present their side of things to youngsters who are looking to follow in their footsteps. Their words of wisdom might not have the impact that mommy would want.
"Contact your nearest veterans hospital and inquire about you and your children paying some visits and volunteering to help wounded vets. It may be a sobering experience"
Yes. I may be a 'sobering experience.'
One in which the kids just might be more inclined to join up when they see and talk to the real heroes of this country.
Dear Abby, I am a veteran of foreign wars and was wondering if it is okay to choke the living $#%% out of ignorant columnists who dispense anti-American nonsense?
Yeah, logic would dictate so. But I doubt it.
"Yes. I may be a 'sobering experience.' "
I = It
You're exactly right. And I said as much in my letter to Dear Abby.
I work on one of the leading military websites, we found a stat that said less then 3% of those enlisted see combat.
Dear Abbey would encourage young girls to "help out" at abortion mills ~ maybe carry the "products of conception" to the disposal or something.
My mom was a 60's liberal. My dad was in the Army. They marched in San Francisco with a black arm band around my arm when I was one. They both volunteered for McGovern. I wanted to be in the Navy since I was 6. Served for 13 years. God has a sense of humor.
It is an appalling response. I was surprised Abby left out "for the oil" and "no WMD". Then on the other hand, the idea might very well backfire big time.
When the son interacts with all these magnificent men and women who have given so much, it might prove inspiring and be the tipping point whether he wants to do something with his life that matters or not. His parents clearly don't want him to do so.
I wonder if Mom and Dad here have ever considered that their kids are smarter than they are; that their kids see that college, at this point in their lives, would be nothing more than a continuation of the lefty claptrap indoctrination they've been getting in high school. My 16 year-old son has told me that he wants to look at the Coast Guard or the Navy after high school graduation. He's very smart, although not much of a student, but smart enough to realize that having "An Inconvenient Truth" shown in class is nonsense. I think a lot of these kids may be turning their backs on the crap they've been being fed and looking for "real stuff".
"Horrible response by Dear Abby..."
I don't know. If those kids talked to some of the wounded at WR, they may learn something. Things like honor, loyalty, sacrifice. They might talk to those soldiers who would go back in a minute to be with their units if they could. That one wounded Sargeant, who had been in Bosnia and Afghanistan, who reupped to go to Iraq. He wanted to be with the younger, less experienced troops. His Humvee gets hit by an IED, his driver killed. He gets to spend a year in WR. He'd go back.
Don't hide these brave heroes because they're injured. Go visit.
I like the advice.
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