Bill,
Absolutely beautiful. I wish that I had you gift with words.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: William R. Benson [mailto:Benson@eqe.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 7:57 PM
To: mil-veh@mil-veh.org
Subject: [MV] Stuff this in your pipe and smoke it...
My fellow listers:
One of our List members, Janet Blohm, stated that when she finally had a
chance
to gauge the reaction of this community to the attack on New York and
Washington
D.C. that she was shocked and saddened to see that, instead of the incident
homogenizing the membership in solidarity behind the country and our
president,
instead there was the usual finger-pointing, flaming, and petty little
sniping
that always seems to rear it ugly head from time to time.
She's Canadian, and really doesn't have a stake in this. We could tell her
and
all those who don't reside in the United States to flake off and mind their
own
business.
Of course, I'm not going to do that, because she is absolutely right. You
Monday morning quarterbacks with the 20/20 hindsight and your petty little
arguements really offend me. We just received casualties possibly coming
damned
close to the same number killed in the entire Viet Nam war, and you're
talking
GUN control and how you would "out-Rambo" the guys who make their living at
the
controls of a jumbo-jet...
"I'll fight the commies when they come boiling over our borders!" There
AIN'T
no commies, maybe some Canadians, but they are good guys... Nobody is going
to
ask us, with our antiquated, out of TOE gear to fight off the Mongolian
Hoarde.
The Department of Defense is still in business, as are the Armed Forces of a
lot
of our friends (the Special Air Service, Mossad, and Her Majesty's Royal
Marines
pop instantly to mind).
OUR responsibilities, if you really want to push it, is to use our vehicles
in
patroitic, constructive ways. Use them, as suggested, as attention getters
at
blood drives, or in just rallying citizens around the flag and assuring them
(especially the kids) that it's okay to be patriotic, and that, in light of
our
great American Melting pot, that they shouldn't be chucking rocks at the
local
AMERICAN Muslim Mosque, because even if the terrorist turn out to be
Islamic,
that doesn't mean all Muslims are bad, just like not all Southerners belong
to
the KKK.
Our vehicles shouldn't be presented as the local answer to "Red Dawn", but
as
another symbol of our support for our communities, our country, and all that
it
stands for, and without breaking out the shotguns and scaring the hell out
of
the kids or the cops, or the little old ladies. There's nothing to shoot
at,
there won't be anything to shoot at, and if there is, you'll know well in
advance when to swap out the replica machineguns for the real things.
Veterans especially have the responsibility to calm the American public. We
have been there and done that, and even though we are more pissed off than
usual, we have to settle things down, reorient the anger, and counsel
patience
as the investigative agencies of our country and her allies find the right
targets, and then we can cheer on our Armed Forces as they mete out that
sweet
version of righteous fury that we want to see.
So cut the petty crap, folks, it's embarrassing the rest of us.
You folks in Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Russia, and the rest of the
civilized word: Thank you. Thanks for the words of support, and we will
take
what help we can get. In the meantime, the famous mule-headed American
Yankee
(or Rebel) consititution WILL prevail, and we aren't going to fold up
anytime
soon. We will see this through, we will prevail, and we will recover, and
those
of us who are stewards of history will lead our country in welcoming her
warriors home when all this is done. That's our promise to the rest of the
world, that we won't let some pissant terrorist effect our freedom, and we
will
keep faith with the rest of you.
In the meantime, we'll be showing the flag in Orange County, letting our
engines
do the talking, and send our best wishes and prayers to the folks back east.
God Bless America and Her Allies, Keep 'em Rolling,
Semper Fidelis,
Bill Benson
MVOOC # 1
MVPA # 20603
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 08 2001 - 10:58:58 PDT