The following sentiments might well upset most of the general population, but as always, what do I care?
I have been watching the past few weeks as the former POW's from the Iraqi conflict have returned to much hoopla and fanfare. For some reason, we seem to find it appropriate to subject these poor people to parades featuring juggling midgets and twirling elephants and a song from the reigning Miss Turnip Festival Queen. Haven't these people been through enough already?
But something has bothered me about all this. Not that it wasn't great to have the POW's back or that they don't deserve support for their sacrifice or anything like that. But why above everyone else are they the "hero" in all this? Some of these people took a wrong turn or crashed a very expensive airplane and were captured. They were captured because they did something less than well in their job, really.
Again I don't want to minimize what they went through and endured whatsoever. But shouldn't we be parading the soldiers who took out the enemy and came through without a scratch. Isn't that the person who performed to the top of their ability?
I think this leads us indirectly to one of my favorite soapbox issues. Americans love victims. Most Americans consider themselves victims of something or other. They love to see the microphone stuck in the face of some poor person crying and upset. Everything they don't have is the fault of corporations or conspiracy or this group or that group. So of course a "victim" on this scale is a hero. They're the ultimate victim in fact.
Oh well anyway, what do I know? Maybe I'll join the Victim Nation. Life is certainly easier when nothing is your own fault. Yeah, I think I like that concept...
In fact, if this entry sucked it was not my fault! I was interrupted constantly while typing it and was abused by a priest or something as well.