Patriotism is Not Misguided! Hoo-Rah!

By: Pamela D. Hart

While perusing the blogosphere I came across a comment that read, “The truly sad thing is there are two reasons kids join the military: The first and likely most prominent is to escape poverty and horrendous living conditions at home, second, to satisfy some misguided sense of duty/patriotism that's handed down from one generation to the next.” Now, I haven’t been one to write a blog post about another blogger’s comment, but today I’m compelled to make an exception. Please keep in mind that it does NOT matter WHO wrote this comment so I will NOT divulge that information and I will NOT permit anyone who is familiar with it to inflict any negative or inflammatory rhetoric against this person in the comment section. I’m steadfast in our right to speak freely and believe we can all disagree with dignity thus, I wholeheartedly, but politely have to disagree with these statements and I’ll tell you why.

As many of you know MY oldest son joined the Army last July, consequently he took the oath to protect and defend OUR Constitution. During this last year, it also being his senior year of high school, he performed “drills” once a month. He graduated from high school, with honors, on June 10th and as of this writing is sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for a bus to take him to Fort Benning, Georgia where he will undergo 15 weeks of Basic Combat and Advanced Individual training. Needless to say, I’m a bit emotional and that comment struck a chord with me.

My son did NOT join the Army to escape poverty and horrendous living conditions at home. There is nothing that could be further from the truth, but I don’t have to defend my parenting or my finances to anyone, because my husband and I did a damn good job (not that we were perfect) raising him. That was our JOB! We made it our MISSION! (There are way too many parents today who do NOT do that, to the demise of their children and it breaks my heart.) I also know a lot of other young men, NOT in my family, who have joined the military, and their reasons weren’t to escape poverty or horrendous living conditions at home, either, so this blanket statement, in my opinion, was said out of ignorance.

As far as my son joining the Army to satisfy some misguided sense of duty/patriotism that was handed down from one generation to the next. While I have never hidden the fact that I have military members in my family tree and possess VERY patriotic emotions toward MY country, I do NOT believe that is in any way misguided. I also logically know that my son is NOT misguided. I brought him into the world, loved, nurtured, guided and helped him evolve into the courageous, respectful, proud young man that he IS today. He knows his heart, his mind and his dreams and he is a warrior. Like his Uncle Tim, the cop who wants to get the bad guys to keep people safe, my son wants to defend OUR country to keep US safe! THAT is NOT misguided.

There are way too many people in our country who have no sense of right or wrong let alone a sense of patriotism. They get up every morning, put on whatever article of clothing they want, drive the car they want, go to the job they want and do what they want to entertain themselves (okay, within the confines of the laws and their pocketbooks!), but they don’t give one thought to the men and women who have died to give them those freedoms. Who’s misguided?

Have we been in wars that were senseless? Yes. But that’s not our soldiers’ fault. That’s the fault of the brain trusts on Capitol Hill. Our military does, without question, what it’s told to do. The misguided ones are those sitting behind desks playing games with the blood and lives of our soldiers.

MY son is a brave young man who is willing to lay HIS life on the line so that we can sit behind the safety of our computer screens and type what we want, when we want. He’s not misguided…he’s insightful for knowing that his path is dedicating his life to serving our country and anyone who knows himself THAT well is not misguided and I’m a VERY PROUD MOM!

**Crossposted @ The Oracular Opinion**