Thinking

[holly_evolving]

I've been reading the MR boards again. And they didn't bother me. They made me laugh, often at inappropriate times. Some stupid misconceptions made me a little mad for a minute, before I remembered that none of it really matters. And they reminded me of some things I learned in elementary school:

"Give me liberty or give me death"
"Live free or die"
"Freedom isn't free"

One of the defining principles that the founders of this country wanted to pass on was the belief that life in security was not better than death in freedom.

Then again, the "if you don't like it, get out" mentality was there too. As in "if you don't like fighting until you die in an effort to maintain your own freedom, go live someplace safe."

I'm conflicted. On an individual-to-individual basis, I believe in these things. But on a grand scale--if you're not willing to die for your country, then you have no right to issue orders from a position of extreme executive power that others die for your country.

Read: if you haven't even risked foreign combat by joining the Army, Navy, Marines, or Air Force in peacetime, you don't deserve to be president. National/Coast Guard don't count. If there's no risk of your dying on foreign soil, then your future self does not have the right to tell others to risk death on foreign soil. Yes I do think a military record is important.

Back to elementary school:
When a leader becomes a tyrant, it is the responsibility of every American to depose him.
I think George W. Bush is a tyrant, and so I will do what I can. I will vote against him. If you do not believe that Bush is a tyrant, then you have no such responsibility. And I disagree with you.

And when they come to take my freedom away, I will fight to the death to stop them. And when they come to take yours, if I see them, I will do the same.

Comments

[wolf-nd-shadows.livejournal.com]

You know though, you don't have to join the military to sacrifice for this nation. Some people don't go into wars because they don't like wars, not becuase they aren't willing to die, and they can be just as capable at leading a community or nation.

But yeah, Bush has no right to claim military competency

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to say that anyone who wouldn't join the military is un-American. I do feel that anyone who will deserves that much more respect. I'm not military, but it's got nothing to do with an anti-military sentiment. I just don't feel that I'd do well in that kind of life. What I definitely did want to get across is that anyone who wouldn't join a "real" branch of the military (as in, one where you might DIE at WAR) doesn't have the right to tell other people to DIE at WAR.

And there are plenty of people who wouldn't join the military who still will fight to the death to protect their own freedom and that of those around them. Like me.