This evening I was at home for dinner and my English class came up in conversation. I was telling my parents that this term would be about staying current and looking into issues involving the war. My parents being from the generation that experienced Vietnam and had parents who lived during WWII, they had some interesting thoughts on Iraq.
My father says, "I will always support my troops, I could never do what people did to the troops when they returned from Vietnam. Troops were spat on, cursed at, and completely isolated. Without the support of civilians, troops will have no incentive to fight for the freedom of those who could care less." My parents talked how our country was united during WWII, and how there has been a very apparent, steady decline in the support and patriotism of our country. Based on this Blog alone, I can see how the personal feeling of purpose whether one is a soldier or a civilian, is lacking. While I'm basing this opinion on 16 blogs, I can't imagine the public and particularly the youth of America to be much different.
Delving a bit more into the issue I discussed in my earlier blog about political media of the war, I see some attempts to bring the public together. But the questions I can't get out of my head are "Why has it taken over five years for a politician to try and bring our country together?" "Why do people not care?" "What made the country unite for WWII, but not for Vietnam, or now in Iraq and Afghanistan?"
I just wonder who or what could motivate the public and bring back patriotism and the support of the troops.
That's what I was saying when I posted about "starting a revolution". It's a radical idea, but I think we are the ones who need to motivate (while we ourselves do as we say)...
ReplyDeletePatriotism existed immediately after 9/11. And patriotism continues to exist on the day commemorating 9/11. But why not celebrate partiotism everyday? Our country exists on a day-to-day basis.
If people can complain about something, I have no sympathy for their complaints unless they actually tried to do something about it. How can we complain that our country isn't motivated enough to give support to our troops for fighting? It's time we start doing something about it.