As a veteran, my feelings about my service are complex and deeply mixed. I followed all the prescribed paths: Junior ROTC, volunteering right out of high school, enlisting for three years instead of two, dedicating myself to the work of monitoring Russian communications.
Yet, in the end, I lost everything that held meaning for me. I have made a life for myself—and for others—but looking back, if given the chance to choose again, I would have undoubtedly taken a different path. I would have skipped the military entirely.
Others have sacrificed far more than me; and yet I cannot help but question our motives. Each day, 25,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, die from hunger and related causes. And we still prioritize funding war making.
America! It's American to be pissed off! That's how this country was founded! Not by complacent people that were satisfied with England! This country was founded by people ..... ..... who looked around and said. "I Don't Like it!"
... ...." I hate it around here so much I'm headed out in leaky boats across a Dangerous Ocean, and maybe I'll die!".
- Gallagher
What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1787 re: Shays Rebellion
I do not profess to condone violence. But as an American ... I understand it.