No other country in the world does what we do. On every issue, the world turns to us, not simply because of the size of our economy or our military might – but because of the ideals we stand for, and the burdens we bear to advance them. —Barack Obama
If you want to see the real strength of America, look no further than the US Military
[Caveat: While I was not able to serve myself, both my fiancé, Kat, and my middle son, Ben, are US Marines. My Uncle Joe was US Air Force and saw active duty over Korea. We have great admiration and respect for the military and all those who volunteer to serve. Therefore, there is some chance that my opinion on the topic below is a bit biased. Maybe. I doubt it.]
Advertising can get really, really strange and quirky. One of the stranger events this week was when the city of South Bend, Indiana had to apologize for stealing, almost in whole, Salt Lake City’s tourism campaign. I can’t remember the last time we saw such blatant theft of an entire campaign. Of course, the agency responsible tried saying it was an homage to the Salt Lake campaign, but no one with a brain in their head is buying that excuse. When ad agencies get something wrong, the results can really be deplorable.
We tend to give advertisers a lot of leeway when it comes to what they say and do in their ads. Advertising is, to a great extent, a form of free expression. While there are limits on certain products that have been deemed potentially harmful to public health, such as tobacco and prescription medicines, most ads have more than sufficient space to creatively represent their product without falling into the trap of false advertising.
During election years, however, we see a form of advertising that is special and rather exempt from some of the restrictions we put on normal advertising. Political ads aren’t selling a product, but rather an idea or concept. Therefore, they can legally say just about anything they want and get away with it. We may not like what they say, but one of the strengths of our Constitution is that they are guaranteed the right to say what they please. Even if it is totally wrong and insulting.
Such is the case with the most recent ad for the National Rifle Association (NRA), fronted by country music legend Charlie Daniels. I’m not embedding the video on purpose. This is a political ad and, in tune with the tenor of this entire political season, the number of lies and misinformation is substantial. That, however, is not the ad’s worst crime. Those are simply opinions, and Mr. Daniels has the right to express them.
Where the ad errs is in the way it insults our United States  Military and the patriotism of the men and women who serve. The copy, which is erroneously directed at “the Ayatollah’s of Iran,” wants to do two things: paint President Obama as weak, and make America sound tough. Daniel’s presentation almost sounds like a bully’s challenge: you come over here and we’re going to whip your ass. What’s insulting, though, is when he says, “… you haven’t met America.” He then goes on to tout the toughness of steel workers, “hard rock” miners, or “swamp folks” as though they are some vicious breed of monster capable of defeating all comers.
Excuse me? First of all, let’s talk to the correct people: Daesh, Al Queda, and the Taliban. Those are the people responsible for much of the terror you see on the evening news. And I’ve got news for you, Charlie, they’ve already met America.
Terrorists meet America every time an M16 bullet passes through their skull and leaves their brains splattered on the ground.
Terrorists meet America every time a squadron of planes launches from the deck of a US aircraft carrier.
Terrorists meet America every time a group of Marines sweep into a known terrorist compound and reduce the place to rubble.
Terrorists meet America every time a US drone strike takes out yet another one of their leaders, as we’ve done repeatedly over the past eight years.
Terrorists meet America every time a US Navy Seal time sneaks up from behind and slits their throats.
We’ve been at war with terror nearly 15 years now. Terrorists have had ample opportunities to meet America and the ground shakes beneath them every time they do.
You want to know why you don’t see acts of terror in the US on the scale we do in the Middle East and Europe? Because terrorists can’t get past the men and women of the United States Military. There’s a reason the rest of the world looks to us when bad things happen. Our Marines can move into a position and take total and complete control of an area faster, better, and with fewer casualties than anyone else in the world. Our military intelligence isn’t always perfect, but it’s better than what anyone else has to offer. The soldiers we have deployed on the ground around the world are better trained, better equipped, and badder, tougher, and meaner than anyone else out there.
Our United States military and National Security Administration are the reason you can go to a concert in the United States and not worry about terrorists getting through the gate. They are the reason you can attend a sporting event without thinking twice that someone might try to bomb the stadium. They are the reason over 300,000 people can attend a race in Indianapolis this weekend and know they are safe.
When the NRA ad implies that steel workers, miners, and “swamp folk” can somehow protect our country better, they’re not only insulting the men and women of our military, they’re demonstrating an unprecedented amount of ignorance. You think steel workers are tough? Put them through a military boot camp and see how many survive. You think “hard rock” miners are strong? Let’s see how many can handle the Navy’s basic training. And I’m not sure exactly who these “swamp folk” are, but let’s put them through the Crucible at MCRD Parris Island and see how many of them are crying for their Momma half-way through.
You want to see the strength of America? Just look at our United States Military. Every man and woman who takes the oath and puts on one of those uniforms represent our best. They are our best. They are trained tough, ready for the most impossible situations in the world under unimaginable conditions, and they’re good to go at a moment’s notice. There are no steel workers, hard rock miners or swamp folk or anyone else who can stand up to the United States Military. No one.
Being strong and being prepared is more than just having physical muscle; it’s having the training to know which weapon to use under which conditions and knowing how to use the weapon properly; it’s knowing how to engage an enemy with as few civilian casualties as possible; it’s knowing how to work as a team, everyone doing their job together, and no one ever being left behind; it’s having the mental strength to endure torture if captured and still find a way to survive and escape.
The NRA ad is nothing but hot air and tough talk from a bunch of old white men who are scared. Let’s see, who would I rather have protecting me, a 79-year-old fiddle player with a big mouth, or a US Marine who earned his/her Eagle, Globe, and Anchor in the mud and sand of Parris Island? I’ll take the Marine every damn time. And who’s the better American? The orange-skinned, draft-dodging politician who yells and blathers and incites hatred from behind a podium, or the soldier who right now is holding point on a terrorist cell, waiting for the order to move in? You know who the better American is.
Don’t tell me terrorists around the world haven’t met America yet. They know damn good and well who we are and they live in fear of what our military can do to them. Maybe it’s about time the folks at the NRA figured that out as well. Our US Military doesn’t wait for terrorists to come to us. We go to them and the terrorists die. Remember that this Memorial Day.
Pretty Tough Girls
When I was in college there was a girls’ flag football league. The girls were extremely aggressive. —Lynn Swann
All girls have a tough side to them – they need it for combating the bullshit thrown at them by men
All girls are pretty and tough. I’ve never met one who wasn’t. Neither the pretty nor the tough are always visibly evident. In fact, if we see one we tend to miss the other. Men, especially those of my generation and older, can be ridiculously one-sided in how we see women and that is evident in the way we treat them. Selling a girl short, though, is a mistake. I don’t have space to list all the pretty tough girls I know, but I want to highlight four who have my attention and deserve yours as well.
Let’s start with the girl in the picture: Cynthia Schmidt. If you’ve been around here very long you already know she’s one of my favorite Indiana models. When I first met Cynthia, she was only 18, fresh out of high school, obviously athletic, and far from fitting into any stereotype anywhere. She ended up joining the Army, ultimately going into the reserves, and proving she could handle anything the guys could dish out. She came back to Indiana for a few years then moved to Las Vegas where she became a star wide receiver in what is now the Legends Football League. If you think these girls don’t play real football, you’ve got some adjusting to do. As NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann infers above, these girls come to play some serious ball and aren’t afraid to hit hard. Last week, this video of Cynthia was released. I think it sums up both the pretty and tough quite well.
I have been Facebook friends with Cathy McNeil Stein for a little over seven years now. We almost met once, but that never quite worked out. I need to make that happen, though, because Cathy is one of those pretty strong girls who shapes pretty strong girls. Having received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard about the same time as some other prominent Illinois people with whom we’re acquainted, Cathy stayed out of the harsh light of politics and focused on the courtroom. She is very strong on women’s and civil rights issues, which, if I remember correctly, is how we became acquainted in the first place. Her opinions teach me to think in directions not inherent to my stubborn brain. What has impressed me more recently, though, has been her work as Mock Trial Coach for Timothy Christian High School in Elmhurst, IL. Talk about tough! This past weekend, she led her team to what I believe is their fourth state championship! What she is doing with the young men and women at that school, as well as at North Central College where she is an adjunct professor, is shaping minds that will hopefully be instrumental in moving the entire country forward. Perhaps one of these days I’ll get up there and take a picture of her smiling face. I just hope I don’t have to get arrested to get an appointment.
Another person on my list would be Cindy Whitehead. I still have no idea why Cindy sent me a Facebook friend request back in 2012. I’m fairly certain I’m more a fan of hers than she is of mine. She rarely comes this direction and I’ve not been back to California since we became acquainted, so I don’t have any pictures that I’ve taken of her and don’t know that I’ll ever have the opportunity. I do know that when it comes to pretty tough girls, Cindy breaks the mold. She is known to most as one bad-ass skateboarder. How bad-ass, you ask? This is the girl who got up one morning and rode her skateboard on the 405; as in Interstate 405, the multi-laned major North/South thoroughfare across Southern California. Cindy is also founder of Girl Is Not A Four Letter Word, an organization that encourages, supports, and facilitates women’s involvement in extreme sports such as skateboarding and surfing. Cindy has done enough noteworthy things in the past 25 years to fill a couple of books, which might be fun to write. I think, though, to best understand why Cindy rocks, you’d best listen to her for yourself. Here she is at a TED-x forum:
I’m closing this with the pretty tough girl who means the most to me: Katherine Franson. I’ll try to avoid the gushy sentimental stuff, though that’s rather difficult. When Kat and I met three-and-a-half years ago, I thought I was reasonably healthy. Sure, there were days when the arthritis was more problematic than others, but I assumed I was doing sufficiently well for my age and absolutely horrible lifestyle. Then, within weeks of moving in together, I injured my leg and that set off a chain reaction of medical complications we’re still fighting. I have never been so thankful to have a U.S. Marine in my life as I was those first few months, though. More than once Kat has had to lift my limp body off the floor, help me down the hall, and at times even help me get dressed. Through every bit of it, she’s been the tough one, pushing for me to get the care that I need, helping me make adjustments in how I work, and minimizing the pain and depression of having to do less. When we met, she rarely wore makeup. She didn’t like it. Now, here she is about to finish school so she can do hair and makeup full time. Pretty. Tough.
As I said at the beginning, every girl is pretty and tough. These are just four examples that really stand out for me. So, when you hear some lame ass presidential candidate talk about the “woman card” or how easy women have it; or when you hear some religiously-motivated former child-actor talk about how women should follow men’s lead, remember these four examples and know that they represent the strength and beauty, determination and resolve, intelligence and capability of every girl on this planet. Do not disparage them or fail to show them any respect. They already run the world, there are just some idiots who have yet to figure that out.
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