Okay, so I am finally going to write my first post for my MySpace blog. I will probably cross post this on The Red Voice, where I contribute, as well. It has taken me this long because I have so much I want to say and have been having trouble getting it into some semblance of order. Not sure if I have accomplished that or not, but here goes. By the way, this will be part rant, but hopefully not totally.
Something I read as a young adult has really stuck with me through the years of college, military service, and subsequent hourly and then career employment. It has colored my thinking, strengthened my resolve, and left me saddened at what I see around me. What I read was a book by Robert Heinlein called Starship Troopers. If you are thinking, “oh, I saw that movie”, forget it. The movie wasn’t worth the price to see it in the theatre. The book has been worn out, not only by subsequent rereads on my part, but also on the part of both of my sons, and my wife, who is not a science fiction fan.
I originally purchased this book because of its Science Fiction categorization, and because I had read other Heinlein books and enjoyed them. I was looking for a few weeks worth of reading enjoyment, followed by months if not years on a dusty bookshelf. What I found was a clear and concise expression of my whole patriotic belief system and outlook on civic responsibility. In the story of Juan Rico and his growth into manhood in the service of mankind, I found the lectures of his instructors and mentors teaching and molding me. I could have found no better direction in a textbook on the subject.
I don’t have any intention of providing a book report here. The reward of reading this book is in the book itself. Turn off the TV or computer or video game you are tied into and go pick this book up. You will not be disappointed. My point here is to summarize what this book opened up in me, and to grieve at the extreme lack of anything even close to resembling Juan Rico’s sense of duty within a large majority of United States citizenry today.
Starship Troopers was written in the mid 20th century, from a future perspective looking back on our present times. How appalling I have found it that Heinlein was so accurate in his predictions of the decline of our society. How horrendous it is to find that we are living in a society where our young are taught by the mainstream media, the school systems, and by all forms of media that there is always someone else to blame, it is never your fault, and that society owes you something. Heinlein saw it coming. He saw a society where the most vocal, read “liberals” from our present society, fight for peoples right to not take responsibility, and proceed to weaken our society through their constant focus on their own agendas, not on what is best for our country as a whole.
One of Mr. Rico’s instructors provided a term for what the outlook of that society was. He referred to those people as people who wanted to vote themselves “bread and circuses”. This means that these people want all the privileges of their society without paying any of the costs inherent in maintaining the ability to have those privileges. Of course, they call these privileges rights, but we all know that is bunk. Who says these are their rights?
The civilization in this book eventually collapses into global war. When it finally begins to recover, the persons who step up and get things running again are former military. At the time of Mr. Rico’s experiences, this form of government has been in place for centuries. You can’t vote or serve in the government while you are in the military, only after you have completed you military service. Anyone who has not served is not allowed franchise. When a class instructor asked Mr. Rico’s class about this, the class voiced a number of absurd reasons. The actual reason floored me. Franchise was offered to these people because they had proven that they were willing to put the needs of their society above their own needs and wants. They were willing to sacrifice up to and including their lives to preserve their society. Wow, what a concept.
When I took up the mantle of military service, this concept was driven home even more. There were all kinds of initial reasons for people enlisting in the military. However, eventually, the majority of the service men and women I met during and after my tenure had a deep-seated sense of duty to their country. They were willing to literally or figuratively “pick up a weapon and stand a post”. As Demi Moore’s character in “A Few Good Men” states “they stand on a wall and say its okay, you are safe, I am here and nothing is going to hurt you tonight.” It started to occur to me that deep down, that same conviction stirred within me. I was willing to put it all on the line if it could provide even a semblance of safety for my fellow man. Finally, Heinlein’s words were clicking.
After I left the military, my family and I moved to the Deep South. Your next-door neighbor was the one who was more than willing to grab the rifle off the gun rack of his pick up and defend his property and yours. He was very serious about “you can have my gun when you pry it from m cold dead fingers”. This tended to keep me from being exposed to how sad our society had become.
When I had been out of the military for about 6 years, my family and I moved to Arizona, where I had grown up. I thought I was coming home. How wrong I was. I proceeded to go to work in an organization where I was pretty much the token conservative, token former military member, token Christian, and token Republican. I will have to let you know about my Republicanism. I don’t vote the party line, and I do vote for whomever I think will serve our country best, no matter what the party.
I proceeded to have to listen to my coworkers bash the military, bash the government, bash The President, and jump on the main stream media band wagon. This was coming from a bunch of people who would immediately scoff at the idea of him or her sacrificing anything for anyone else. It was always about how something affected them, not how it affected the nation as a whole, or even the world as a whole. The only time they got up on their soap boxes about something was when they thought it made them look good, when it was the new “IT” cause of the week/month.
I thought that maybe this was just a local thing. Maybe it was just my place of work. Maybe it was just Tucson. Finally I started realizing that this had become a national phenomenon. Here were people that had never had to sacrifice, and would never step up and defend this country, much less their own “rights”, complaining about the state of our country. Oh no, they didn’t offer solutions, or viable alternatives; all they did was complain, and lie.
The only constructive input I hear nowadays is from those who have sacrificed or are willing to sacrifice. Not just military. It doesn’t take serving in the military to develop the strength of character to be willing to sacrifice for others. There are many out there that have never, nor will ever put on a uniform, but they know of what I speak. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of that type of sacrifice. These and my brothers and sisters in the military are the ones who, along with myself, will consistently look to and vote for what is best for our nation and the world as a whole. We are the true patriots.
The rest of you will continue to pal around with the Michael Moores and Dixie Chicks of the world. You will continue to be part of the problem and not part of the solution. Well, if you wish to continue to vote yourself “Bread and Circuses” get out of our way; we patriots have a post to stand. From us patriots, “its okay, you will be safe in spite of yourselves, we will do all in our power to keep something from hurting you tonight.”
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