OK, I can appreciate that. As long as you show the same respect to IRS auditors, DMV clerks, NASA engineers and all other federal employees out there…
Well, you know, I try to respect everyone.
So you respect military people simply because they’re people? I thought you said you respect them because they’re “authority.”
12 year serviceman chiming in here.
Someone going to basic training / OTS and putting on a uniform every day doesn’t make them a hero and doesn’t instantly make them (us) deserving of any sort of reverence or extra support/money. I think the individual actions of a person in, or out, of uniform are what makes them heros deserving of my admiration.
I will not deploy. In my job it will not happen. It makes me uncomfortable when I’m out in uniform and someone pays for my lunch or stops me to thank me for my service when I pretty much live the life of a business man (USAF Engineer). I don’t risk my life any more than the kid working at McD’s. I will say that if told to head overthere I would go without a second thought and fulfill my duty honorably. But don’t assume just because you see one of us running around in BDUs that we are living a hard war beaten life because alot (most) of us just aren’t (USAF and USN anyway). I deployed many times in the 90s but it wasn’t an active war zone then.
I admire the men and women that are over there fighting a war they may not agree with but they are putting their lives on the line every day and that takes guts. I support them because they need it. I do my job HERE to keep them alive THERE. But there are alot of people who don’t wear uniforms doing the same job I am. Keep that in mind.
I appreciate your perspective, As always it’s one more bit for the mix that is an opinion. I have lived in Las Vegas since I was 5 years old and near Nellis AFB for a good part of it. It is just outside of North Las Vegas, generally known as a poorer area of Vegas on the whole. Although I have interacted with soldiers on many occasions, as when I ran aftermarket auto parts stores I had some that worked for and with me, I have had an opportunity to associate with members of the Air Force on a more personal level. They were men just like I was, most of them joining the Air Force as a career decision. This was almost 10 years before the first time we invaded Iraq. Most of them hadn’t seen active duty at that time. As I began working for new car dealers after that, I had occasion to meet many more that were in the reserves that worked as mechanics there. Some of these guys left and came back while I was still working their and after returning from the first invasion some of these guys were markedly different upon their return. Still continuing in my same job, the men that I have known that have fought in this war are just know starting to trickle back and are on the whole much more quiet than on the whole than when they left. These men I don’t ask about their service because I can see from their demeanor that they are changed men. For better or worse, who knows, but be sure I endeavor to treat them with perhaps a tad more respect than I would a lot of men that I know. Right or wrong, having known them before, it is not my business to pry into their lives and if they felt like sharing I’m sure that they would. I have made it known to most of them of my thanks and pride at their service to our country but again. I don’t pry as that is as rude as anything I could imagine doing to another man, almost like asking about his sex life or something that personal. I just feel it is my duty to offer whatever support I can to all soldiers I meet and I meet new ones every day. They come here from all over just as they have done in the past and I am courteous and open to them as I am a lot of people I meet through my job that even travel through the city on vacation or coming here for work. I guess my point is I see guys like Dio who are almost irritated by their service and it makes me wonder why. So I do what I can to offer my hand when I feel it necessary for better or worse because it is all I have to give.
Because if you respect all soldiers for what they’e doing, you would want all soldiers safe. Meanwhile, American soldiers are killing these other soldiers. So how is any of this supportable?
I’m not irritated by their service. I just don’t feel a sense of personal gratitude for them doing a job which, while dangeous, confers no benefit to me. I feel sympathy, respect and sometimes admiration, I just don’t feel the very specific sentiment of gratitude.
I actually have often felt gratitude for law enforcement, fire fighters and paramedica and have had occasion tell them all so. Somebody being unfortunate enough to get sent to Iraq to make the world safe for Halliburton, though…Dick Cheney owes them the thank you card, not me.
Well I realize part of your user name is “cynic”. Perhaps you can find a way to work “jaded” in there too. I would never tell you how to live your life but I will offer you a bit of advice. From someone who has had more of the bad the world has to offer than the good. Lighten up a bit. Your habit of fighting over insignificant things is going to do you more harm than good, my friend. You are guiding 2 children to thier destiny. Watch your self closely for their sakes. I love children more than I love myself and a dam side more than I love most adults. You know I offer this advice as a brother so don’t get pissed, please.
I was raised to fear the military, and personal experience cemented this, and added a great measure of personal enmity, as well. I’m never going to feel any personal gratitude for soldiers as soldiers. Sure, soldiers as relief workers, that’s OK. But salute them? Where do you guys live, modern America or '40s Germany?
I don’t salute any one ! I wasn’t in the military. I do offer my greetings you know, “How’s it going?” “How are you doing?”. You know I respect you and more importantly your perspective. Please don’t minimalize mine by making comments like that. If I lived in 1940’s Germany I would be a German soldier or long dead if I was asked to kill innocents. I think you know I’m not shitting you either. I am a man and I act like one.
There are many people who work hard at jobs I would never take, for little pay, who have an enormous impact on the safety and well-being of my community.
This includes aforementioned emergency and relief workers, but also charity workers (who answer the phone at suicide hotlines, and make sure assaulted women have a safe place to sleep, and feed families who cannot make ends meet, and so on, and so forth) and nurses and teachers, and (although it may surprise you) a lot of government employees* and even politicians who actually do have the public interest at heart. I even know lots of businessfolk who make a huge positive difference to the world far beyond their fiscal bottom line.
Many of these sorts of people have done things which have merited my personal gratitude far more than any military person has. I’ll be thanking them first.
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- (a category of which military personnel are, of course, a subset)
If you don’t salute the troops like the suggestion in the OP, then my comment didn’t apply to you. I have no problem with just greeting military personnel. It’s the special civilian salute (co-opting ASL that, to me, looks like my “are you pregnant?” hand gesture) that gets the fascist state comparisons.
Well as I didn’t see anyone else state that they did, and my comment stated that I attempted to strike up conversation, which I begin with eye contact, It seemed you were referring to me. No harm, no foul.
I’m not really sure why this is bothering you so much. I was raised to defer to authority and to honor hierarchy. That is something that is basically ingrained, which means when I see a cop, or yeah, the guy at the DMV, my instinct is to straighten up and follow directions. I don’t mind having a boss and if I ever got a speeding ticket I wouldn’t resent the cop who gave it to me. I am a rule follower and I always have been.
Whether my respect for authority is augmented by my general good intentions toward all of humanity, who the hell knows? Your comparing the military to the guy at the DMV seemed loaded because I interpreted it as some kind of challenge… like you expect me to say, ‘‘Heavens no, the guy who works at the DMV is barely fit to shine my shoes!’’ That’s not going to happen, both because the guy at the DMV is an extension of the government and also because he’s a freakin’ human being.
I think we are talking about two different kinds of respect. There is a deference and following orders kind of respect, and there is a recognizing the humanity in all people sort of respect, and for the purposes of the comment I made regarding authority, I refer to the former. Perhaps instead of saying ‘‘I was raised to respect authority’’ I should have said, ‘‘I was raised to follow orders.’’ I’m sorry if I confused you.
It bothers me that someone thinks of the military as having authority over them. I think this mentality is just a result of pro-military propaganda. I too was raised to defer to authority and to honor hierarchy, but never thought of soldiers as having any type of authority over me.
Oh, I see. I think it’s because they tend to carry high-powered weapons. 
But seriously, there’s a lot to be said for the fear aspect. The military as a government entity seems frightening to me. I wonder if I would be so respectful to authority if I didn’t also fear the repercussions of rebellion.