I did NOT join the army so YOU could use MY service

to further YOUR agenda.

Every single one of us served for our own reasons which is really nobody elses business but the individual veteran's. Every single one of us stood up and signed our John Hancock on the paper when we enlisted. That means we are capable of speaking up for ourselves.

You either have a DD214 or you don't. It's that simple.

The annual social media brawl regarding fireworks is still in full swing and the usual gang of culprits always seems to want to drag veterans into the fray when most of us do not want to be a part of it.

When the annual fireworks fray begins one of the first things Karen does is to drag veterans with PTSD into it to use as her shield to further her cause. It's one of those things that is similar to the too often played race card. (The race card lost credibility a long time ago from being overplayed.)

What is a veteran, anyway? I posted that one a while back and if you want you can read that one, too. Just click on the link. A veteran is simply a person at one time in their lives signed a check payable to the government payable up to and including their lives. Most of us never went into direct combat as it generally takes about 8 or 10 people to service one guy in the field.

While we are at it, PTSD is often associated with combat. The truth is that it isn't restricted to combat veterans. It even isn't restricted to veterans at all. There are many non-veterans out there with the disorder in one form or another. But I digress.

The fact is this veteran and many like me do not like our service dragged into things to help you with your agenda that in many cases we do not agree with.

It was interesting to note that poor Karen found out that not every veteran with or without PTSD agree with her. A couple of people posted that they have the disorder and love fireworks. Surprise!

Another person posted his family history of those that had served. The list was quite impressive, actually. When I asked him if he, personally, had a DD-214 the silence became deafening.

An awful lot of us vets do not like being dragged into the middle of things so some middle aged suburban woman can hold us up like a circus animal to reinforce her personal agenda. I didn't serve for that reason and I'm sure many if not most of us didn't, either. We all served for our own reasons. For the most part one of the reasons was not so that we could help someone reinforce their agenda.

Actually I wish people would stop hiding behind a lot of other things, too. With fireworks people hide behind children, veterans, animals and other things. 

If people would just stand up and say "I don't like fireworks" I'd actually respect them. It would show they have some character and integrity.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY