ProgressOhio

Those who have the true spirit of Independence Day, and what it really stands for - THE COURAGE TO RESIST need someone willing to take a stand beside them and give them a voice even if it is a cry from the wilderness.
In our hometown of Beavercreek, Ohio this Independence Day is full of irony and hypocrite's. To top the list, our 4th of July parade has a World War II theme that ignores the sacrifice of those Veterans who did not win our civilian government's wars. One, the Korean Conflict, the first dry run for the 99 year occupation of Iraq is still going if not strong it's going. The other, Vietnam, ended with the Vietnamese people celebrating their Independence Day, even it the south had to endure tragedy beyond any American's imagination to achieve it. It was called reindoctrination to a united Vietnam except for the Boat people, many who (like Iraqis to come) now call America home.
However, the hardest hitting insult to those Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans (regardless of their views on their war) who remain in combat, still fighting and dying in their war, is the shameful creation of an Iraq War Memorial by a company that makes tomb stones (Dodd's (Funeral) Monuments) of Xenia, Ohio. Come on folks, doesn't anyone see the immorality in this.
I'm not talking about the immorality of war or even opposition to war, I'm talking about a bunch of right-wing Veterans, lead by an influential Republican World War II Vet, placing a Memorial to 'younger' Troops in combat into a WWII Theme park they call a Veterans Memorial. It IS A POLITICAL MESSAGE - A PRO-WAR SLOGAN DISGRACEFULLY MADE BY A COMPANY THAT PROFITS ON DEATH.
As a Veteran, and Dad of an Iraq War Vet, I could give them a pass, if they at least had the class to contract with a artist or company that makes sculptures even patriotic memorials, BUT A TOMB STONE MAKER??? as a political message.
The last time I passed by our, yes I'm a Veteran of two wars with a brick laid at that memorial for me and my child, when I thought it really meant something other than POLITICAL PROPAGANDA, it was surrounded by more UNITED WE STAND political signs than American Flags.
My disgust at what is going down, former generations of Veterans, a few who won their war, and by the grace of God, the buzz word until they all die off is "Saved the World from people like G.W. Bush." are using their heritage to shame the rest of us into following their blind nationalistic march to disaster.
I had no problem with that, and could ignore it having half my brain tied behind my back, until they started using statues of troops who had not yet to complete their mission [whatever that will be next July 4th], come home from war, or even know what the future holds. A sorry sideline, is that neo-conservatives are USING and EXPLOITING even their own kind, World War II veterans who out of pride and glory for what they did do, no one, not even I can take that away from them despite my views. They do not even realize they are being PATRONIZED and USED.
Check out the flights provided to WWII Vets to the WWII Memorial flying out of the Wright Patterson AFB area, (look the other way as this right-wing scam is going into debt and bankruptcy from folks being too smart to donate to exploitation). It got national attention this Independence Day Weekend by showing a bright side that this is being provided free to old Vets who otherwise would not be able to see their memorial before their generation passes on. That's a good thing, however, what I question is TIMING and USING these Veterans to again send a political message of PATRIOTISM that was associated with the WWII generation.
Let me tell you something from my heart, it may not sound like it, but Major Bobby Hanafin has lots more respect and appreciation for what that generation lived through and endured, heck even their enemies [remember they are glorifying a period way before most of US were born], vast civilian populations they had to destroy in order to WIN. I take the good with the bad. I'm a realist, not a idealist I'm a PATRIOT not a NATIONALIST.
This is the spirit of the real respect I have for them. The Greatest Generation is appreciated by me and my military family for one reason and one reason ONLY. It is not because they won their war, nope, IT IS BECAUSE THANK GOD THEY WERE NOT US!!!!
Now before I allow my rants and raves to turn some of you off, we all are not that progressive, this is my long-winded way of saying, my passion and anger gave me the motivation to allow our younger generation of progressive Veterans to SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. That is the best way to really reflect the spirit of INDEPENDENCE DAY.
The official, national holiday is controlled by Political Correctness upon which our nation would NEVER have been born. It is to the Winter Soldiers that I dedicate this INDEPENDENCE DAY. May it some day be reachieved from the tyranny of thought control.

Bobby Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired (69-94)

Independence Day! by Iraq Veteran Ronn Cantu

Iraq Veterans Against the War, 07/01/2008

     I guess I always knew what the Fourth of July meant. I had, after all, had the standard amount of American history classes in school. From what I can piece together and remember, it means hot dogs, fireworks and Ole' Glory. I knew that if you wore or displayed red, white and blue, then no one could question your patriotism; and that if you were truly a patriot, you agreed with your government no matter what.

     When the war in Iraq broke out, in true patriotic fashion, I answered the call of my country. I went to fight them over there so I wouldn't have to fight them in Southern California. My experiences in Iraq changed how I view my own country and upbringing. I was mortified at how some of my fellow countrymen conducted themselves in our host countries and worse, I didn't want to believe that my country would willingly get engaged in something so… pointlessly bloodletting. And all under the guise of something so noble!

     I had wanted to give the Iraqi people the same freedoms that we here in America enjoy… or freedoms I thought we enjoyed. Now I'm not so sure. My Platoon Sergeant confided in me that the war in Iraq took everything he thought he knew about America and crushed it. I responded by telling him that my feelings on the subject were similar.

     I realized, late in life but not too late, that the Fourth of July has another name - Independence Day. The day our forefathers saw fit to cast off the shackles of a government that was not representing its people and establish, for themselves, the government they deserved; because they realized, they knew, that only they had that power. The Fourth of July, Independence Day, will from here on remind me of a time when we, as countrymen and as Americans, realized that our government has the power and only the power that we allow. It's a lesson we were forced to learn more than 230 years ago and, in typical American fashion, it may be a painful part of our history that we are forced to learn again.

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