Thank You

[giza]

These were taken in Ardmore, Pennsylvania earlier today by an SAC member:







(I did not want to want put these behind a cut, because I think they're kinda important. So I tried making them smaller than usual and using height and width attribs to be considerate to those on dialup.)

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Very nice, thanks for sharing them.


"All gave some; Some gave all"

[skippyfox.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Hope you had a good Veteran's Day kitty O_o

[netcrimes.livejournal.com]

God Bless America.

[triggur.livejournal.com]

What're they, blocking the sidewalk unless you pay homage?

[giza.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fair deal to me!

[triggur.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Is there something wrong? The men in the above pic served our country overseas, and they did their little ceremony on Veteran's Day, which is certainly an appropriate time to do that.

While I was being a little sarcastic, what's wrong with simply saying to them, "thanks for serving when we needed you"?

[doco.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, your country scares me.

(In fact, it does so rather often)

[giza.livejournal.com]

What's scary about those pictures?

(No really, I'm serious)

[doco.livejournal.com]

There's a bunch of wacky old men celebrating their success in killing other people who happened to wear the wrong uniform, bombing cities filled with civilians and refugees and calling it a 'service for mankind'.

A country that is based on this kind of foundation scares me.

[giza.livejournal.com]

You realize that those guys are probably World War 2 vets, yes?

What I saw was a bunch of guys who had to leave their homes and families to serve our country in a time of need because a madman was trying to take over the world and killing those who he deemed "inferior".

[doco.livejournal.com]

Never mind that your then-government gave a shit about that pesky little war until late 1941, when the Japanese slapped them into their face.

But still, it might not go unnoted that these men have committed atrocities and war crimes (as has mostly everybody involved in WWII), and in my opinion this is nothing to be proud of. Celebrating that you were ripped out of your family by some obscure powers, put in an uniform and sent as meat resource toward the shores of France or the islands of the Pacific isn't something I would commemmorate either.

But then, it's the winners who write the history, and that's probably what warps the views on these people so much. Just because they're the ones who won the war doesn't mean they have the rights to be so vocal about it. Instead, they should contribute to the future generations by teaching them that mankind must prevent what they had to do. That this has not happened is easily proven by the 2,000 dead Americans that have been shipped home in zinc boxes recently.

And before you ask, both my grandfathers were active servicemen, one in the Waffen SS, the other serving in the Marine Corps in the North Sea. My mother's side of the family are East Prussia refugees, and I -originally- would've had thirteen aunts and uncles, but ended up with eight (well, nine, actually, but we usually don't count Uncle Gunter who went insane in 1951 and lives as a hobo until today) so I know a few stories you and your fellow countrymen don't.