Snafus involving Marines in S.F. and Oakland have critics raving
What do you say to an article like this? The rest of the country thinks San Francisco has returned to 1967. Is it our fault for celebrating the anniversary of our counterculture revolution? Who's right? Articles like the one above which have been making the media rounds lately cut me to the core. I chose the Bay Area as my home town. Even though half of my family is made up of veteran conservatives who have lived in Orange County for most of my life. And still, here I live in the belly of the Leftest beast, and if that wasn't enough, my degrees and my career all have served Leftist organizations. Far Left organizations.
My parents were high school sweethearts they met and married and in his early twenties even though he was in college, and could have avoided the draft, my Father enlisted with a friend and was off to Vietnam. He was a Marine. When he came back obviously he wasn't the same. He suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. My Mom says, "that's what your Dad had," when she speaks about it now making sure to note that they didn't have a term for it back then. Their marriage fell apart and I've always been left with the impression that their age along with a war that took place before I was ever born affect the entirety of my life. I'm proud of my Father's service to his country. I know the GI bill helped them to buy their first house, and I know that traditionally the Armed Services offers others the opportunities my parents afforded me. But I also understand that those hand outs come with a price. A very very costly self price that isn't in the fine print. Do I condone the horrible treatment soldiers received when they came home from Vietnam, the spitting and so forth? Fuck no, I don't. Do I condone the war now or even Vietnam in retrospect? Fuck no, I don't. I don't condone these wars because their destructive for no reason. Its that simple. We've gotten involved in wars which aren't really to protect our country from a threat rather they're to protect our interests, and there is a big difference.
Doesn't anybody see the blurring of the real issues again? The Administration is running out of enemies and so it turns to the Bay Area because we are an outspoken liberal bastion. We're easy. We get our collective panties in a bunch and close ranks. And in that vein, what would be wrong with the rest of the country becoming more like the Bay Area? We have high salaries, one of the largest educated work forces, and a ton of programs aimed at social responsibility. But I get that people have earned the right in this country to live as they please including living in ways that are different than the way I chose to live.
Here's a clue for both sides: people are tired of righteousness and blame. It makes both sides dig their feet in and eschew change. It uses divisive language, "us versus them." It does nothing. Nothing, but make us hate one another and stymie any real solution. Oh wait maybe that's the point...
