WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?

The director of homeland security Janet Napolitano issued a memo warning the administration as well as the American people of “right wing extremists”. This memo stated that the economy, new legislation, illegal immigration and other current US issues may cause a surge in “right wing extremism”. But the memo also targeted veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to be some of the more easily influenced and recruited to right wing extremist organizations. The memo States that those who serve are more prone to aggressive right wing recruitment and “lone acts of violence”, as if they were nothing more than terrorists in training. What is in the minds of these people? The department of homeland security has the fortitude to accuse veterans, those who serve and are proud to do so, of the type of cowardly acts of violence we have been exposed to, and return it on our country. It is unnecessary for the director of homeland security to demonize our veterans for her own political gain.

Miss Napolitano DO NOT put me in the same group with the same type of fundamentalist idiots that I am protecting this country from. My brothers and I are not terrorists or even potential terrorists. The only terrorists are those with weak wills and weak minds, which isn’t something you will find in our armed forces. You should be ashamed of yourself, using less than a handful of incidents to provide evidence of your claims. The thing is that most of the people who protect your ass are veterans. As far as “disgruntled military veterans” perhaps the government we work for could show us some respect instead of indifference, perhaps then you wouldn’t have “disgruntled vets”. You make me sick, veterans are the reason you have freedom and this is how you treat them Miss Napolitano? It’s shameful that she still holds this office after this kind of discrimination.

I have said it before; soon the “thank you” will stop. If they want to equate this conflict to that of Vietnam then it will soon be that veterans are no longer welcome in their own country. Soon returning veterans will be greeted with protests and hate or worse. Left wing idiots like Miss Napolitano will continue to demonize our country’s most dedicated people and feed them to the political wolves. Is it not bad enough that many of our own soldiers are being railroaded by their own government and being charged with war crimes and murder in an active combat zone? Is it not enough that we must go far away for long periods possibly get shot at or blown up, only to return to our country unwelcome and unappreciated?

When is this nonsense going to stop, and when are people going to realize that it is those who serve and their families are the ones that pay the price for your freedom? What would happen if soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines weren’t there for you? Would you pay the price for your own freedom? I doubt that, because most people are too cowardly to stand up and say yes. Then it must be up to those few , the less than one percent of the population, who proudly wear the uniform of the American armed forces that must make that sacrifice. So the next time you see someone in uniform, thank them, because they are the reason you are free. And remember, cowards sleep well at night knowing that brave men and women stand willing to do battle on their behalf. This is only the land of the free, BECAUSE of the brave.

Joseph Cooper
Wilkes University 10'
Communications