No matter how much I appreciate what my grandfathers did in WWI or my father in Korea, I'll never know what they went through. Complacency, a lack of understanding, misguidance lead people to do things like harassing soldiers at home. The people in this photo, I'm sure, are not snubbing the members of this parade, but it makes you wonder if maybe we have it so easy today that some do not fully appreciate what has been done and is being done for us. I guess it's more of a symbolic photo.

 

I've seen this photo before and it should be emphasized that the inset caption says, and the only person standing is the guy with the wheelchair. Unfortunately, this is very true. We're seeing a resurgence in &quot;patriotism&quot; but by the same token, we're also seeing the anti-patriotism, bury your head in the sand, hey, lets go to the stop the war rally and see if we can pick up some chicks group gathering strength.<br><br>This last weekend, in our little corner of the US, Saturday to be specific, the local anti-wars were having a &quot;fair&quot; down at the ol' federal building. Starting in a town 20 miles to the north, a convoy of over 250 trucks paraded into Bellingham, around the main drags and past this &quot;fair&quot;, horns blaring, lights flashing, departed Bellingham to retire back to the north for a &quot;weenie roast&quot;. The fair organizers complained that the truckers &quot;disrupted&quot; their moment of silence and some of the truckers were rude. Maybe the fair goers were intimated by the cement trucks, logging trucks, freight haulers of all sorts, pickups and many other &quot;trucks&quot; displaying American and Canadian Flags, decked out with yellow ribbons and signs of support for our troops. So much for the silent majority. <br><br>We've been comfortable for many years. Displays of patriotism seemed to have been embarassing or discouraged in the past. 9-11 changed that to some extent. We just have to keep reminding the idiots who think they can chant their anti-war slogans and that will cure the ills of the world, that Neville Chamberlain thought he had a deal with Hitler and millions paid for that stupidity.<br><br>Americans reading this item, how many of you have your American flag displayed in front of your house? Look around on the national holidays, how many flags are displayed? In my stretch of neighborhood, theres just two or three out of 30-40 homes. Shameful. My flags (American and POW/MIA) fly everyday and everynight because of a spotlight. You betcha. Irritates those anti-war kiddies that live on each side of me and up and down the street. <br><br>Pride in your nation starts at home.<br><br>~proud to be an American and I know many proud Canadians. Are you? Proud, that is.<br><br>~Dave

 

Proud as I can be. I served in Korea during the VietNam war, and the anti-war movement was much stronger then. I didn't particularly like the anti-war folks then, but since our government was not fighting to win, some of the anti-war people had at least some leg to stand on. The same IS NOT TRUE in this campaign; I fully support our mission to remove the current regime in Iraq from power, completely. Then if we find clear evidence of involvement and terrorist training in places like Syria, they should be next. One mistake we as a nation have made since WWII is to lack consistency in going after the whole snake. The only way we will win the war on terrorism to to go hunt these freaks down where they live and train, and get rid of them then and there before they do their &quot;martyrdom&quot; acts.