Where is the respect for our military?

As I sit and catch up on the news stories of the past week, I always find something that gets my blood boiling. This week it is a story in the Seattle PI about a lady by the name of Amy Hagopian who is working to have Military recruiters banned from high school campuses.

In Mrs. Hagopian's words, "Given the seriousness of what they are requesting people to participate in, we'd just prefer they not be on school grounds, which are supposed to be protected space for students." Well she's did get one part of that statement right, what the recruiters are asking our young folk to sign up for is serious. It's as serious as anything that could ever be asked of a person and that is to stand up for their country and possibly pay the ultimate price in defense of their nation. We are asking young people to defend the rights of people like Amy Hagopian to ridicule and mock a profession that has provided her with a comfortable and free life in which she can state the things that she says.

What is our country coming to when being a soldier is seen as a bad thing? Like it or not, this country was forged on a great principal of freedom and alot of bloodshed to ensure that freedom. I can think of no person that should be more honored in our society than those that choose to place their lives on the line to protect people that they know and those that they don't. This is what a soldier embodies.

All across America, we are seeing the Mainstream media and academia denounce the very people that make our way of life possible. Every day we see the abuses of the military in newspapers and television like Abu Garhib. Don't even get me started on those so called abuses, but that is a post for another day. Every day the media reports on these atrocities perform by the hands of our military on the front page, but how often do we hear the stories of the soldier that helped rebuild a church or that saved a human life? How often do we see pictures of a soldier who took the time help a child in the country that they are fighting in? Oh the stories are there, sometimes, if you look on the last page in the small print, but where is the front page recognition of the good that our military provides?

All of this "anti-military/anti-American" free press crap is taking it's toll on our youth. They no longer respect the people and professions that make this country great. Instead, we have small groups of students brainwashed by this mindset that are preventing military helicopters from landing on school grounds. Never mind the students that could actually benefit from a term of military service. Many a student has been saved by a term of military service, myself included. It provides an honest means to college or out of a way of life that could have led them down the wrong path. No, the voice of the few affects the will of the many. Yet another freedom that is protected by those in the military.

Mrs. Hagopian, you see photos of those that have been hurt in war and wish to abolish the military recruitment process. I see heros who have give more of themselves to protect your freedom and way of life than will ever be possible from you. You say that the decision to join the military is a "life and death decision" and for some people, you are correct, but then again, so is the decision to walk down a back alley of any major city in the world. Quit trying to pussify our youth and let them make their own decisions. I will never fault anyone for choosing not to join the military, but I find great fault in those people who wish to disparge and belittle the people who decide to do so. Any person who decides to protect this country is a hero and deserves to be treated as such, and what you are doing belittles their sacrifice. Our youth see the actions of people like you and choose to adopt them because protest (of anything) has become fashionable in this country.

What will this country become if you get your way? We become an indefensible people with no conviction. With no one to protect your right to live free, that right will soon disappear. While I'm sure you think you do this out of intelligent thought, take a step back and consider the consquences of your actions. The next time the bad guys come to blow up our buildings or take the lives of our countrymen, it will be a soldier that you turn to protect us and they will do so, even if you have tried to convince our youth that thier job is unnecessary. When all that stands between you and death is a soldier, will you still feel they aren't worthy of your respect? Hopefully we will never have to find the answer to that question, because somewhere, a soldier is ensuring that risk never finds you.