Rockford Register Star
  • My View: Not all liberals think like Wemstroms

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  • First of all, I am a liberal. I am:
    n Pro-choice, though I pray constantly that I and none of mine will ever have to make that very difficult choice, but I want it to be their choice, not government's.
    n Pro-background checks to keep guns, as best we can, from those who would harm us or others for whatever criminal or any other reason.
    n Pro-improved metal health care for those cursed with mental disabilities with which they struggle constantly.
    n Pro-labor, let the worker have his/her seat at the table to chart the future of this joint venture called American capitalism. And I won't bore the reader with a long list. I think you get the picture.
    I have always read the Wemstroms (well, sometime, when they are not a tirade against one capitalist thing or social injustice which bothers them) and supported their right to say what they want - I even agree with them sometimes. But as Phil Robertson, who has so recently joined the list of those suffering real-life consequences for personal beliefs (think Tom & Dick Smothers, Johnny Cash, Martin Bashir, Sara Palin, and the list could go on forever), showed us, words can have consequences, and I am afraid the column by the Wemstroms on Dec. 24, has moved me to reply.
    To intimate that those who died "to make men free" have a somewhat less meaningful death because they were drafted or paid replacements does a disservice beyond words to those men who CHOSE to be there, CHOSE to go into battle and were unfortunately killed in the process of performing their sacred duty.
    Whether a person is drafted, enlists or whatever, he/she chooses to put themselves in harm's way, to do whatever their country asks, and lay down and sometimes lose their lives to move America's agenda forward. To dishonor their death for ANY reason is beyond freedom of speech and is reprehensible and scurrilous to say the least.
    To put the HEROES of Iwo Jima into the category that they were there "to defend the Asian colonies ." and to disregard Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the retribution that act and the taking of the Philippines, etc., by the cruel Japanese warlords called for is beyond freedom of speech and simply denies the truth. The same can be said of those who died at Hue, and, as a matter of fact, of all American servicemen and women who have died in performing their duty.
    They chose to put themselves in harm's way, whether as a draftee or enlisted person, and paid the ultimate price - they are to be honored and respected for that. Period, enough said, anything else is blatantly disrespectful and completely reprehensible.
    Page 2 of 2 - As I stated in the beginning of this reply, I am a liberal, but I neither share nor endorse any of the sentiments expressed by the Wemstroms in their Dec. 24 column, and as a liberal, I apologize to my conservative, libertarian, and those of all other political belief for the insult and disrespect such writings bring on our veterans and country.
    Not all liberals believe the disrespectful and inaccurate things spouted in that column, and while they may have the right to say it, it is certainly not the right thing to say. Peace, joy, and love to all.
    Joe Crawford is a Freeport resident.
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