From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Fri Aug 30 2002 - 02:51:18 MDT
Brian D Williams wrote:
>>From: "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin@tsoft.com>
>
>
>>No lies here, Mike. No bullshit, either. There is a sincere
>>difference of opinion. I do appreciate the motives of people
>>like you and Brian to do what you can for the country you
>>believe in, but most people on this list (alas) don't have
>>countries that they believe in.
>
>
> That is the crux of the problem.
>
> It is of course both painfull and infuriating to those of us who
> have paid a heavy price for our citizenship to see this country run
> down by people who have paid nothing for theirs.
I was under the impression that this country exist for to
acknowledge and protect the rights of all of its citizens, that
the country exists for us rather than we for the country. Those
who did not go into the military have every bit as much right to
speak up and to be fully respected as those who did. Would you
disagree with any of that?
At the time I was of an age and health to be in service there
was nothing this country was involved in that was worth fighting
for in my opinion. So I gave it a pass. As is the right of any
free person.
>
> We have a saying for it: "For those who have fought to defend it,
> life has a flavor the protected shall never know."
>
> This is not a new problem and one I consider often, ever since it
> was presented to me by Heinlein in "Starship Troopers."
>
> Heinlein's reasoning of course is that people don't respect things
> they haven't had to pay dearly for. In "Starship Troopers" you
> couldn't vote unless you had done a period of Federal Service.
>
And wouldn't that be a jolly world? NO, it wouldn't.
- samantha
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