Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Sundiver on March 19, 2003, 10:47:34 PM
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The Soldier at Valley Forge
I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at Valley Forge, as he holds his musket in his bloody hands.
He stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from months of battle and emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his family surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war.
He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on his breath. He looks at us now in anger and disgust and tells us this...
"I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illiterate to read it.
"I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at home because it rains.
"I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business.
"I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people.
"It's the soldier, not the reporter, who gives you the freedom of the press.
"It's the soldier, not the poet, who gives you the freedom of speech.
"It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who allows you to demonstrate.
"It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag, that allows the protester to burn the flag!!!"
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I don't get the point.
Someone made a sacrifice to give people certain rights, so out of respect for that sacrifice you shouldn't actually exercise those rights?
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Originally posted by Nash
I don't get the point.
Someone made a sacrifice to give people certain rights, so out of respect for that sacrifice you shouldn't actually exercise those rights?
You are indeed correct, you do not get it. Read it again, carefully. In the event English is not your first language, I can understand that you may not understand what is said. But you are 180 degrees out from the point.
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Well... like I said... I don't get it.
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Originally posted by Nash
Well... like I said... I don't get it.
Okay, try this:
"I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illiterate to read it."
Despite my sacrifice, you are too sorry to teach your children to read.
"I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at home because it rains. "
Despite my sacrifice, you are too lazy and self absorbed to go and exercise the right to vote that I fought to give you.
"I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business."
Despite my sacrifice, you a so cowardly that you will not speak up for fear of not being politically correct, lest it cost you the money you hold so much more dear than the freedoms my sacrifice gave you.
Get it now? The soldier made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms during the birth of our nation, and the majority of the sorry lazy assed people these days piss away his legacy.
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Nash is a Canuck, he doesn't understand anything unless it involves beer! ;)
SOB
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Got it.
Woulda been a lot simpler if the writer just came out and said it as you explained, instead of trying to put words in the mouth of some fictional Valley Forge soldier in order to get his point across dripped in sentimentality and with a sense of moral superiority.
I love how some writers try and co-opt dead people in order to lend their words, and agenda, some kind of weight. Got something to say? Say it... Don't make me "close my eyes and picture" somebody else saying it.
That being said, sure... something to consider here. The delivery? It sucked. Never could stand that style.
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AshreckenMEN SOB!
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I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illiterate to read it.
My kids can read just fine that you, and I venture to say 99% of high school graduates can too. THis statement has no merit.
"I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at home because it rains.
Oh, I think you will find an awful lot of voters go to the polls even in the rain. One nice thing about freedom, is you can choose to vote or not to, we dont really "owe" anyone our participation in the electoral process.
"I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business.
Again, the great thing about freedom is to be able to choose when you want to do something, and you needn't be forced to harm yourself to live up to somebodies expectation of what you should do. By choosing not to speak up, maybe you spare somebodies sensitivities. Picking the right time and the right forum is important.
"I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people.
Isnt that someones opinion and not actual fact? Pretty much just a sound bite without justification or substance. We are still a democracy, we still vote in or vote our our government officials.
Of course, the rest of this post about soldiers is old stuff, been around for a long time and attached to this rather ridiculous string of stupid statements. It might just be the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that "give" you these rights, its the soldier who defends and protects these rights.
"It's the soldier, not the reporter, who gives you the freedom of the press.
"It's the soldier, not the poet, who gives you the freedom of speech.
"It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who allows you to demonstrate.
"It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag, that allows the protester to burn the flag"
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Originally posted by Sundiver
"It's the soldier, not the reporter, who gives you the freedom of the press.
"It's the soldier, not the poet, who gives you the freedom of speech.
"It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who allows you to demonstrate.
"It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag, that allows the protester to burn the flag!!!"
And of course it's soldier, not the reporter or the poet or the campus organizer or the protestor who is the biggest threat to all of these rights/freedoms.
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Hey, in the beginning it tells us to close our eyes.
How're we supposed to read it?
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Hey, in the beginning it tells us to close our eyes.
How're we supposed to read it?
Yeah I got to that point and after that it was all black!
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I read the whole thing and vomited all over my keyboard.
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Originally posted by Sundiver
..."I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote...
Uhhm...
But not if you were a women or black.
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Originally posted by Dago
"It's the soldier, not the reporter, who gives you the freedom of the press.
"It's the soldier, not the poet, who gives you the freedom of speech.
"It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who allows you to demonstrate.
"It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag, that allows the protester to burn the flag"
At least give credit to the source.
Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sgt, USMC
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I read the whole thing and vomited all over my keyboard.
Hey, that's my line!
I hate vomit encrusted keyboards.
BTW, that little 'story' has all the hallmarks of an adolescent English Literature assignment.
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What about the Romans? Terrible terrible end :(
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Sundiver nice post.....
nice little piece on things we take for granted.....:D
tough being a soldier back then....
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Originally posted by SLO
tough being a soldier back then....
Tougher now. Back then the enemy was clearly defined. Now soldiers have to fight the enemy and defend their actions in their own country.
I dont recall the protest at Valley Forge... was it left out of the history books?
Washington is HITLER! :rolleyes:
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It's not tougher being a soldier now than a Napoleonic era soldier.
Even a small flesh wound could kill a soldier two hundred years ago. No anti-biotics. No pain-killers. No anaesthetic. No surgery other than a bone saw and a blood crusted apron.
Atrocious food. Ruthless discipline including being flogged until your bones were open to the sky. Non-existant pay.
I think things have improved a little from that state of affairs.
A well defined enemy? Tell that to the French in 1809 during their Spanish campaign. I'll give you a hint, the word 'Guerilla' originates from that conflict. French troops raped and pillaged to their hearts content. So did the British after the siege and capture of Badajoz.
As for protests, slavery was still practised. Women were 2nd class citizens and there was no definition for 'crime against humanity'. It's taken protest and struggle to change that.
Don't denigrate modern soldiers by making silly claims.