Apparently feeling intellectual, The Washington Post sports department decided to mark Memorial Day this year by pondering a deep thought.
“Military tributes at baseball games: True honors or hollow gestures?”
This is a question that is most commonly asked by people who find any actual displays of patriotism vulgar, especially those displays that celebrate the truly incomprehensible sacrifices that soldiers and their families make on behalf of American freedom.
But whenever such culprit is challenged for asking this sophomoric question, they riposte: I care so much about the military and the sacrifices troops make that I want to defend them against unworthy and thoughtless acts of gratitude from people who may not really mean them.
By this logic, the only appropriate expression of gratitude is for every man, woman, and child here in the U.S. of A. to sit on an IED and get blown to pieces. Of course, nothing would do more to render meaningless all the countless sacrifices made so that we may live free in America.
Deploying the favorite tactic of people who like to ask this question, the Washington Post sports department rustled up a disgruntled veteran who says that such displays of gratitude towards our nation’s warriors only leads to more warriors going off to more wars.
The use of a veteran to advance this spurious argument is meant to divide good Americans who tend to reflexively defend American troops in any situation.
Remember when President Obama traded five terrorists in exchange for a U.S. Army deserter? Americans who genuinely love and support our military still haven’t fully recovered from that dastardly trick.
The truth is, these people despise the U.S. military and all the power that it exudes around the globe, even today. Or, perhaps, they love the military so much that they would like it to just vanish, along with all the brutish thugs associated with it.
Which, actually, would be kind of funny if we could just do it on a pretend basis and watch all these 90-pound, big-eared weaklings with law degrees try to defend themselves for ten or 15 minutes.
Honestly, there is only one way to honor the sacrifices of our warriors and their families. That is to elect serious politicians who take very gravely the solemn duty of sending our fighters into war.
Those politicians would never, for instance, vote for a war based on political whims. Then clamor for retreat as soon as those political winds shifted. They would never seek political gains in the blood of our fallen and wounded soldiers.
Sadly, Washington seethes with just such creatures and many of the most treacherous of them fancy themselves presidential timber. Lord, help us.
Beyond that, our greatest, most sincere exhibit of gratitude is to enjoy our freedom as fully as we can and to jealously guard against politicians and government operatives who would distort the America so many have died to protect.
And, yes, that means jets screaming overhead, heart racing under the fingers of your hand during the National Anthem and tipping your hat to veterans at baseball games.
Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com and on Twitter at @charleshurt.
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