I Am Becoming Embarrassed For My Country As A Veteran

[TheMastersNemesis]

I really wonder what I served for and why I served these days.

In Denver we will have an ordinance where it is technically illegal to be homeless in the city. If you down in public you will be arrested or harassed to move on. It is a new kind of vagrancy law.

If you want to vote you have to go through a gauntlet of paperwork and pay a fee so you can exercise your right.

If you are poor, have no work, unemployed, are old or sick, are a minority, you are a slacker and a thief on the public dole.

If you are public servant or a teacher you are a freeloader, a socialist or a communist.

If you are rich and a thief which most super rich are you are admired as a moral pillar of the community.

So many people in this country believe so much GOP and conservative crap that we are becoming unrecognizable as a compassionate nation.

The fact that a jerk like Romney is any kind of presidential material makes me sick. I would never salute that bastard except to give him the single finger salute.

Vets who have died in a country that would support the GOP policies have probably wasted their lives. A GOP AmeriKa in not America anymore.

[madashelltoo]

1. IT'S FRUSTRATING AS HELL, BUT DON'T GIVE UP ON US YET.

THANKS!

[Fumesucker]

2. Becoming?

You're way behind the curve..

[brewens]

3. I knew since high school that a lot of WWII vets didn't understand just

what they were fighting against. That's why it's always better to say you're fighting FOR your country. They don't have to understand much of the politics of it that way.

To a lot of them it was fighting the bad guys. Like in the movies or playing cowboys and indians or cops and robbers as a kid. It's how they could come back and embrace fascist ideas. They never bothered to understand what was wrong with that in the first place. Heck, we could even make it work here as long as we don't try and kill all the Jews!

[glinda]

17. My dad is a WWII Vet and he voted Obama and will again. This all from a

man who is Archie Bunker like......

[CrispyQ]

4. You are not alone.

I'm embarrassed for my country as a global citizen, for all the reasons you stated.

[SGMRTDARMY]

5. Romney is just another chickenhawk just like Cheney, Nugent Bush.

I just don't get why any vet would chose to vote for this asshat.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. What? They simply had 'other priorities'. You got a problem

with that?

[SGMRTDARMY]

9. I forgot

Whille I was getting shot at in Vietnam, their other priorities were to see how much booze they could drink, how many women they could bed and how much money they could make off of the arms merchants.

Silly me, what was I thinking?

[coalition_unwilling]

11. What, you say you had some other priorities yourself? Silly you! (Hope

you realize I'm being 100% sarcastic about those shitstain hypocritical fortunate sons.)

[SGMRTDARMY]

15. Oh absolutely I realize that your being 100% sarcastic.

[ThomThom]

7. I think they get indoctrinated into such thinking by the powers in charge

they get Rush on the radio
they are told the Republicans have their back and Democrats are against them

[dotymed]

8. I have read many books about the perversion of America.

Realizing that our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were written by wealthy land and slave owners does help me realize how we have become an international pariah. However, our constitution does make it clear that we had the opportunity to become something great.
Having just read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," (2004) it became obvious how we have become the corptocracy that we are. World history is all about the triumph of greed over morality. Our constitution did give us a choice to change this paradigm. Unfortunately, we kept the elite as our leaders. In so doing, we guaranteed the path of empire.
Fortunately written into our Constitution is a "do over" card. Since we cannot get a real populist on our ballot, which forces us to repeatedly choose the lesser of two evils, I don't see an alternative to playing this "card."
Our military (just like the country we succeeded from) operates to enforce empire and corporate agenda's.
Only if our citizens throw their blinders off, can we hope to become "for and by the people." Peacefully is the hope, yet we know the power that the elite wields and uses indiscriminately. It definitely is not becoming better.

[jaysunb]

19. +1

Very well stated...and I'm w/ the op and other vets that wonder "what the hell was it all for?"

[MADem]

10. Work to elect sane candidates--or run yourself.

You have to start at the "START" line, though--these state and national politicians don't generally jump out of the woodwork. They start out as mayors or aldermen or other minor city or town officials, and if they get the bug, they run for higher office. It really is key to work to put sane people in local governments, because that is usually where it all begins.

RMoney is an oddball--he purchased the 'weak' governorship of MA; he failed to select as the candidate trying to steal the Senate seat from Ted, and once, already, the nation has said "No, Thanks Anyway" to Mittsy the Shittsy. But hey, he's rich, he can just grab some cash from Switzerland or the Caymans and fling it at the media markets and try again!

I intend to work hard to make sure he doesn't get his wish.

[pasto76]

12. Word Brother. Romeny is a clear example of how powerful corporations are

despite the will of the republican party, he is the nominee. Someday they will clue in.

there is also an evolution of genuine sociopath behavior that is becoming the acceptable and commonplace. I suggest everyone learn about the real definitions of sociopath and psychopath. Reflect on that. Eliminate those qualities from your life.

This is not said from ego, in fact my service and deployment have almost completely killed my ego, but we are a higher caliber of person than most americans these days. I will go the harder route daily to maintain my integrity. I go the harder route everyday to honor those that trained me, served with me, and served under me. I never forget those that died in my place, so that I can be here. They least they deserve is for me to always do the right thing. Even when it sucks.

[harmonicon]

13. Why don't they just step it up a notch?

They could just criminalize being poor and save some people a few steps before they become homeless. Then those poor could work in labor camps for the rich, instead of sucking from the government teat.

[Jamaal510]

14. Wait...did you say there's an ordinance that makes it illegal to be homeless?

Police are just looking for things to arrest people for. Of all the crimes in the world to be arrested for, they want to arrest somebody for being homeless...it's as if they think people choose to be poor and without a place to live.

[TheMastersNemesis]

20. The Denver Ordinance Sadistic And Cruel.

What the Denver ordinance says as far as I can tell is that you can be arrested if you are caught sleeping on public property (the commons). The Denver police are being trained to refer a person to a homeless shelter other social service. The fact that there is not enough homeless shelter room in the city is irrelevant I guess.

I worked at the Boulder homeless shelter fir 4 years in the early 1990's running a day labor operation. I was an employment specialist at the time for Colorado DOL. Homeless shelters are mostly night operations. They are not funded nor equipped or staffed to aid homeless people during the day. They can barely stay open as it is.

Homeless people have a multitude of very serious disability problems and almost all are mentally ill in some way also . If a normally mentally healthy person becomes homeless and stays that way for six months they develop a "homelessness syndrome" similar to PTSD which has to be treated with all of their other problems. Most homeless people do NOT choose to be homeless or without work. They get to a point psychologically where they are unable to function normally anymore even with help.

I CANNOT UNDERSTATE the magnitude of the problem. And many homeless people are veterans.

The business owners in downtown Denver demanded that something be done to get rid of these people. I won't be shopping down there for for sure.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. i know someone who actually does believe

That being homeless is a choice.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. For a few people, it is a choice

I once met a man who was living in a wheelchair in the streets of Los Angeles. He told me that he had some place in Altadena that he could go to, but it was too far away and besides, he preferred to live on the streets. I couldn't understand his attitude.

And not too long ago, there was a TV program about homeless people here in Japan. A lot of them camp out in "blue sheet towns" along river banks in Tokyo and elsewhere. While some of the men the program interviewed said that they were not homeless by choice, others said that the daily pressures of life had become too much for them and that they actually found some solace and camaraderie in their homeless communities.

[classof56]

16. I'm contemplating a trip to my old home town of Denver...

Not to stay, but to visit some friends. What you say is more than disturbing. Illegal to be homeless? You have to pay to register to vote? As Thom Hartmann likes to say, "Amazing." As in unbelievable. As a retired public servant I am well accustomed to being devalued and considered a freeloader (never mind the part about getting up, going to work and doing the people's business). But now it seems I am also a socialist and communist...again, "Amazing." Makes me think of that tune "The World Turned Upside Down", which is rumored to be what the British band played when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, signaling the end of our Revolutionary War. If Romney is elected, I vote to play that one at his inauguration...unless I have to pay to vote.

Sorry...rambling's over. I like your post--you are right on in your assessment of what's happening in the here and now. I pledge to do all I can to make America America again.

Blessings.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

18. And for what? To transfer everything to the super-rich.

The rule of law -- gone. Not even openly admitted war criminals can be prosecuted.

Manufacturing jobs -- gone. Sent to Red China and other foreign countries.

Free speech -- gone. We now have a surveillance society where protests without risk are not allowed in public.

The future for our children -- gone. Now they and their children can pay for the bailouts for the super-rich.

[mahina]

21. Here's the thing,

we share a common feeling about this, but now that we've recognized how far things have gone south, we have to approach this effort in a new way.

We can win hearts and minds at home, too, by telling the truth and being 'that guy' that talks to everybody we know.

We can do this, I know it. We are put in a position where we have to defend the America we grew up with against these hateful greedy selfish creeps.

Can do.