Veterans day is a bunch of crap!!

by LuckyLucy 49 Replies latest jw friends

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  LuckyLucy

  shakita..apparently my post went over your head (maybe someone in your family can explain it to you)
  I was defending the Vets.I think the vets are not given enough credit. Our government just uses them and then throws them out when their done...go talk to some homeless people...you might be surpised how many of them are vets not to mention the mental problems they have now for serving in the war.Where is the government now when they need assistant??
  WAKE UP AND TAKE YOUR REALITY PILL!!
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  animal

  Defending the Vets by badmouthing the country they defended... and slamming those few that respond with an opinion on here? Interesting defense.

  Animal
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  Shakita

  Lucy:

  Having a bad day?

  There really is no need to YELL at me. I was just expressing an opinion. If I did get off the point, so what. Does that give you the right to type abusively to me? I will not respond back to you again. I am a sensitive person who does not need this crap.
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  MYOHNSEPH

  There's a lot about the U.S.A that needs fixing. But it's like they say about sex: It ain't the only thing in the world, but it's way the hell ahead of whatever is in second place!
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  LuckyLucy

  Shaika..no ..in fact i am having a great day...thank you very much..just a low tolerance for stupidity
  Does it need to hit you at home for it to sink in? How can you trust the government that lies? I thought this day and age people would see through the propaganda.

  The clamor over welfare benefits for sick and elderly immigrants has overshadowed a wartime promise made by the U.S. government to thousands of able-bodied foreign soldiers. Lay your lives on the line for American ideals, the men were told, and we will make you Americans. The brown-skinned foreigners who took up arms for freedom and democracy are now aging, disabled, or dead. The promise has yet to be fulfilled.

  This is not a story meant to endorse the something-for-nothing entitlement state that too many "immigrant advocates" advocate. It is just the opposite - a timely history lesson about the lost values of honor, sacrifice and patriotism.

  More than a half-century ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped soldiers from the Philippines to fight against Japan in World War II. The Japanese had attacked the Pacific island nation, then a U.S. territory, on Dec. 8, 1941. In return for their courage and loyalty, Roosevelt pledged that Filipinos who fought for the U.S. would be granted American citizenship and veterans benefits.

  Over 100,000 Filipino soldiers served the U.S. faithfully throughout the Japanese occupation. On April 9, 1942, some 76,000 Filipino and American soldiers surrendered to Japanese troops at Bataan, located on the Philippine island of Luzon. For the next 10 days, in blazing heat, they were forced to march 65 miles through the jungles and on to concentration camps at Cabanatuan.

  Last weekend marked the 55th anniversary of the end of that gruesome journey - the Bataan Death March.

  Along the way, Japanese soldiers tortured their bound white and brown captives mercilessly. The atrocities ranged from cigarette burns to water and food deprivation, bayonet stabbings, fatal beatings, and decapitation with samurai swords.

  A lucky few escaped; many survived, including my grandfather, Nazario E. Perez, a colonel in the 3rd Battalion of the Philippine Commonwealth Army. Almost 54,000 of the marchers made it to camp, but more than half (25,000 Filipinos and 2,500 Americans) succumbed behind barbed wire to disease and starvation. When the war finally ended, more than 1.1 million Filipinos - soldiers and civilians alike - had sacrificed their lives for the U.S.

  FDR's pledge died with them. Although a small number of Special Philippine Scouts were naturalized immediately after the war, Congress passed a rider to the 1946 Rescission Act stripping all regular Filipino army soldiers of their rights and privileges as U.S. veterans. President Harry Truman signed the bill into law. It declared that the Filipinos' military service had not been "active" as defined for the purpose of receiving full veterans benefits. Yet, all other European allied soldiers who served similarly under the U.S. flag were granted full veteran status and attendant benefits.

  How tens of thousands of Filipinos who shot, shelled, spied, marched, starved, prayed and died for America came to be viewed as "passive" participants in the war, my grandfather could never comprehend.

  When I was 8, he traveled to the country he fought for to see the Statue of Liberty. He wept. In my eyes, Lolo 'Zario was an American patriot. In the eyes of the U.S. government, he was indistinguishable from any other camera-toting foreign traveler. He visited a few times over the years and passed away in 1989. Just one year later, Congress partially righted its historic wrong by granting overdue U.S. citizenship rights to Filipino World War II vets.

  Last fall, President Clinton signed a proclamation designating Oct. 20 a day to honor Filipino veterans for their valor. But a pat on the head from a man who protested the U.S. on foreign soil during another war is hardly fulfillment of the promise FDR made 55 years ago. Bipartisan efforts to provide equity in military benefits for the aging Filipino vets have failed year after year, even as states (including Washington) and the feds move to preserve welfare benefits for other immigrants.

  Retired U.S. Army Major Urbano Quijance, president of the Bataan Corregidor Survivors Association in Seattle, member of the Philippine Scouts, and a Bataan Death March survivor, says he understands that Congress needs to "economize." But a promise is a promise. Keeping it will be expensive, he acknowledges. But those who defended democratic ideals in the Philippines paid a high price, too - in lost limbs, innocence, and life.

  "This is not a giveaway," says Maj. Quijance. "This is something earned."
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  gumby

  I'm getting where I really don't care for this country anymore (I better be carefull...It's getting where you can't say anything bad about it..sound hauntingly familuar?)

  Why is it people are so sensative on the subject of loyalty to country? If a person disagrees in a church about certain things such as..".I hate the color of the walls in here, ..or they should get some new chairs...these are as hard as a rock".....othere don't say.."well, you can always feel free to leave if you don't like it here." Yet if you dislike SOME THINGS in your country and you express it.....only some will respond defensevely. Others will get radical and that is pure indoctrination.

  I don't like a lot of crap our country does and everyone is a liar if they say there isn't something this country does and has done that was wrong. So what. Would I like it better somewhere else? Maybe. Why don't I move there then?.....Give me some dough to go check it out and I will if I really would like it there and thought it had less problems than here and I could deal with it better.

  There's nothing wrong with complaining about things you don't like whether it's your country or your shoes.
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  LuckyLucy

  LMAO!! How can you yell at someone on a message board??
  Shakita....If you were a sensitive person..you would be upset about the way the vets are treated by the government.
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  gsx1138

  I think the sense of balance always gets screwed when talking about the Government. This is one of the top countries in the world and a hell of alot better than 90% of the rest of them. However, we have our share of problems as well. Rose colored glasses don't make these problems go away. The idea that "you can just leave" is fascist and unamerican. Anyone has a right to complain about our country so long as they are trying to change what they see wrong. The whole, 'you don't agree with the majority so just leave' is so childish because generally speaking those who make that statement are just lazy. They make a gut response without actually thinking and have no real voting experience to back it up. From what I remember, Animal is probably the most active in politics on this board I just vote alot.
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  hillbilly

  FDR's pledge died with them. Although a small number of Special Philippine Scouts were naturalized immediately after the war, Congress passed a rider to the 1946 Rescission Act stripping all regular Filipino army soldiers of their rights and privileges as U.S. veterans. President Harry Truman signed the bill into law. It declared that the Filipinos' military service had not been "active" as defined for the purpose of receiving full veterans benefits. Yet, all other European allied soldiers who served similarly under the U.S. flag were granted full veteran status and attendant benefits.

  Lucy-- I get your point and know why you are upset. However, the US pumped millions of aid dollars into the Phillipines during the post WW2 era only to have the country turn away from democratic principles. Those millions were to rebuild the country.Whatever Truman's motives were the fact is the US did it's part to assist all Fillipios for years after WW2. They ( and many other countries we have paid) turned out to be poor allies and very anti- american after spending the millions of US cash sent their way. It's a real shame the Phillapine goverment screwed their vets out of so many good things too. (plus the general population)

  The US did'nt want to pay female WW2 vets the same benifits either- but they lobbies Congress and got equal treatment in the 80's.

  As far a lying to veterans goes--well in 1932 good Old Dougie MacArthuer, ordered troops against WWI vets that had taken up residence in Washington D.C. These vets were trying to collect on war bonds issued as compensation for wartime military service. Of course, the Depression was on at the time and the Goverment could not or would not pay the men who needed the cash in the worst way.

  Several veterans were killed by Federal troops directed by Mac's orders.. He was supposed to clear DC of the protesters and, by God, he did.

  Yes, we have done a poor job taking care of veterans. Maybe- we may be the only nation that has ever had a system of GI benifits as exhaustive as the GI BILL OF RIGHTS in place after WW2 well into the late 80's.

  Most vets took the the Bill and created a high standard of living exercising the educational benifits provided.

  Some have had bad breaks in life and a many have been scandalised by Agent Orange, Gulf War syndrome and other situations but the US treats its vets as well or better than any other country in place.

  Your original post--"veterans day is crap"-- well it's the Least we can do. Now if you had wanted to adress the POOR treatment of Our Vets (of any nationality) you should have posted a more accurate title.
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  DakotaRed

  While the title to this thread initially threw me for a loop, cut Lucy some slack. I see her point. What many don't realize is that Veterans Day is just a renaming of Armistice Day, when they offiicially ended World War One. After WW2, they just combined both endings into one day.

  Memorial Day is set aside to remember out war dead and that one most everyone gets off.

  As a combat veteran myself, I do not ask for or expect any extra privileges or recognition, just a kind word and a thanks occassionally. As a Vietnam Veteran, I only hope for the day when the country loves us as much as we love it (the only line worth repeating from all the Rambo movies).

  It matters very little who does and doesn't get the day off to me. I only ask for all to simply reflect on the millions of men and women who made sacrifices for all of us to enjoy the freedom to even have the day.

  Lew W