Support Our Troops Hypocrisy
Monday, May 23, 2005So a this radio show this morning they asked poeple to call in and state what "irks" them. One of the hosts mentioned being behind the person trying to buy all of her groceries with coupons, the other said drivers who leave blinkers on. One 11 year old girl called in and said that her fast drying nail polish doesn't dry fast enough. (Can anything happen fast enough for an 11 year old?) Then, one lady called in and said her peeve was that people put those Support Our Troops ribbon shaped magents on their car sideways so the text reads straight across instead of vertically like the ribbon would be worn.
That just kind of set things of in my ADD head and made me start thinking of how stupid those things really are.
Now, before I get irate comments about how I should be supporting the troops: I DO. I fully support any member of the armed sevices. I think the sentiment behind having those magnet things is probably genuine and a good thing. The problem I have is with the magnet itself, the fact that people bought them, and definitely with the majority of the people selling them.
Really, the magnets themselves are just stating something that everyone in the country SHOULD do. Everyone SHOULD be supporting the troops. These are the people that dedicate at least a portion of their life if not all of it to keeping our country safe and free. I'm fine with not supporting the poeple who made the decision to send them any certain place (Because I don't at the moment). That's part of the freedom the troops are protecting. People shouldn't need the damn magnets. the troops should need to be reassured they need our support, it should be a damn fact.
The problem I have with the people who buy them is the money they spent on it. So someone shelled out as much as $10 for one of these things. I've actually seen one truck with 12 of them. So they spend this money on a magnet, supposedly showing their support for the troops, but are they? They had no problem spending money on this little trinket to stick on their car, but ask them to spend a little more money elsewhere, say taxes, and they'll say hell no. Meanwhile in order to really support the troops our country has to write checks for billions of dollars we don't have. If you want to support the troops do something that really matters. Talk to a local unit and see what you can do.
And the worst of all are most of the people selling those things. These people are using other's goodwill to make money. It's almost like having a support the orphans jar, but keeping the money for yourself. I know some places selling those have donated money to different causes like buying body armor and stuff, which is what they should be sold for. However, the vast majority of those magnets are sold by money grubbing idiots who like the poeple above would probably scream bloody murder if the government were to put a tax on their little magnets.
There should be a 75% tax on those magnets and the funds go directly to supporting the military. I see them everywhere, if $1 of each of those was sent to our troops we'd probably see a nice drop in the 2.26 soldiers per day dying in Iraq this month.
Support our troops, not some idiot with a magnet shop.
Ok, the soap box can go back under the stairs again.
posted by Chief Slacker @ 9:39 AM,
2 Comments:
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At Mon May 23, 09:02:00 PM,
Cerridwen said...
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I fully understand what you are saying here. The way I understand it, if those are sold legitimately, there shouldn't be any tax charged on it because it is going to support our troops. I was oneof those who initially found it cute and interesting but then after figuring out that private companies are making money out of it and not really going to the troops, it made me feel digusted. Basically - these men and women are being taken advantage of. I never bought any and begged my whole family not to.
:) Good post! - g -
At Tue May 31, 05:41:00 PM,
said...
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Excellent post! I totally agree! Thanks for sending me the link!