I DO agree with that statement, Alpho!

I was reading this and was just going to stay away from it but then someone requested a tutu...LOL

you know, I always try to see things from both sides. I don't always succeed, but I really try.

I am not being pusillanimous about the subject...it is just that I know it's a touchy one and I am not sure what
I can say, really...I am just not that smart.

I grew up in a town, considered deep south with a military(Air force) base there and the whole town kinda thrives around the base folks. Every few years, somebody would talk about shutting it down and then the whole town would get all worked up and then rumors would fly and then, everything would be back to normal again.

Surrounding this base are farms: turkey farms, chicken farms, hog farms, cotton farms, corn farms.
And pickles...

lots and lots of pickles...their pickles are so famous you might have had it on your dinner table...

I did some cotton picking, I did some turkey spreading, and I did some pickling and have gotten myself into more than a few pickles...

I worked with farm girls, farm boys. Some of them content and willing to stick around while others dreamt of getting away.

military guys are a hot commodity there and they know it. They are men in uniform and the girls eat it up.

(now, I am just generalizing cause not ALL of them are like that!)

it is hard for a small town farm boy to compete with the cool, hot military dudes. So, a lot of them DO want to join the military.

I am not saying that they join to get the babes. I am just saying, it is an attractive option to some of them.

But they have choices. They can do other things, stay on the farm or study harder, or go somewhere...it's all about choices, well at least, to me. It is.

I know when we are at the very end of the ropes, we can barely see choices because we feel like that we don't have any. But really. There really is always a choice.

Suicide, for example. Is a choice. When one is at the end of the rope and the only choice is suicide and life. Well, there it is. TWO choices....

when I was younger, I had thought about joining the military, part of it was cause I thought, hey, the girls!!

Part of it was cause I thought, hey, I'd get to see the world, part of it was cause, I was lost...

of course, the military didn't take me cause of my disorder. And I was devastated...

I came from another country. I came here growing up being teased and feeling left out. If I can admit this without anyone hating me

I have to say that I grew up with a big part of my life hating this place because I felt left out. I wanted to go home where
I felt I belong!

I was a man without a country for awhile...I went everywhere in search of myself. I traveled to Europe and I've traveled around the country...

still lost...

but after all that traveling and meeting various folks...I grew up...and I learned that I LOVE this country...

I just didn't know how to love it cause I was knee deep in hatred for such a long time, and it was buried beneath the self-hatred...

I was blind sided...

and what helped even more, was meeting you guys (on the forums and the chatrooms) even before meeting any of you in person.
It enriched my life, it opened my myopic views, it made me appreciate the fine folks that make up this country, that I now proudly call home...

when 9-11 happened, I wished so much that I can put on a uniform and go bomb the enemy or give them an enema.

Whenever I read someone was killed over there, I felt like I wanted to do something...even though I can't stand the sight of a gun and I'd shake and tremor whenever I'd hold one...

it was just something inside that I identified with...that I LOVE this country...and I wanted to do something for it.

with that said, it doesn't mean that I agree with everything the way it is being run. There are a lot of structural problems.

When I first move to my current town, I met a guy on the base and we became fishing buddies. He showed me his house on the base, It was horrendous. I asked him how can the gov't treat our best this way. He didn't know what to say.

Some of you have been to that island to our weeding and you have seen the beautiful parts of it. But I've seen the otherside of it as well.

But there are different people living there. Some will say that they love it, some will say that they can't stand it. Some will say that they join cause they have no other choice, some will say that they join so they can fight for their country.

I've met them all, I've taken classes with a lot of them and partied with a lot of them...

the military is just as divided and diverse as we are in this here them forum. They all have an opinion on how the base should be run or how the gov't should run it.

I just listen...cause beneath all of that, there are flesh and blood and hearts behind there...and whenever one of them would talk about "unity" the others would chime in about how they are brotherhood and that they WILL watch eachother's backs.

I BELIEVE That...and after that, they'll go on and disagree again...

I've seen that there and I've seen it here...I know, well, I have to believe that after all the differences have been said and settled, that tomorrow, if someone needs a lift, the other will go and lift them up.

If I didn't believe that, I don't think I will be here posting ever again...

I am not really sure where I was going with this because I really was just going to stay out of it.
For I feel the pain of those veterans and I wish for them that they do not have to suffer the suicidal ideations.

It is tough enough being an ordinary joe like moi to suffer through the thoughts, you add in war, you add in all the other crap, PTSD, whatever, it's gotta be hard...and I wish that I could do something for them...

Gosh, I am just grateful...to be here, posting...having a choice and a chance to voice my opinion...as I value you all....

((((grouphugs))))