Re: Patriotism and Citizenship

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu Sep 05 2002 - 16:44:08 MDT


Brian D Williams:
>That's for 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
>Housing?
>Two double bunk beds (they're isn't room for three) in a closet
>with three roommates you don't choose.
>Food?
>Red death, green death, brown death. It's "free" because no one
>would pay for it. We spent what little money we had eating
>elsewhere.
>Clothing?
>Myth. You pay for your clothing in the military, especially initial
>uniform issue. You get a ridiculous little allowance, it doesn't
>pay for socks.
>Insurance?
>Another myth, you pay for that too.
>Training?
>How much military training is applicable elsewhere?
>Retirement?
>If you stay 20 years you get a minimum package.
>I understand Curt. If it's just a job then you're not actually
>missing anything right?

This was your choice.

Many people here have stories of themselves or people close to them
who have struggled (chosen freely) very hard for many years, often under
the conditions that you wrote above. (You know that you've described
normal life (or a pretty good life) for many people on this planet,
anyway.)

For those that we know, are you claiming that an engineer's struggle
or a doctor's struggle, or a mother's struggle, or a writer's
struggle, or a farmer's struggle is not as valuable as a soldier's
struggle?

Who gave you the authority to claim that _your_ struggle is more
valuable than other people's struggles? Your weapon that you used
might not have existed if it were not for that particular engineer's
struggle. You might not be alive today if it were not for the
'sacrifices' and struggles (freely made) by a distant relative in
your past. Perhaps the struggles of that farmer contributed
significantly so that your family had food to eat. Or maybe the
struggles of that scientist that learned how to vaccinate against
against a particular deadly virus is the reason that you're alive
today too.

I see no reason why these other people's 'struggles' are not just as
valuable as the struggle that you're claiming as a soldier.

Amara

-- 
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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." --Anais Nin


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