You don’t protect my freedom Our Childish Insistence on Calling Soldiers Heroes

[LP2K12]

36. I am not a hero...

I am a veteran. I neither ask for or expect your thanks. I served, voluntarily, not for the thrill or opportunity to shoot things or to take the lives of other human beings. No. I served with the hopes and aspirations to be a force of kindness and good for Americans and for those beyond the borders of our nation.

I am not a hero. I served as a means of obtaining a college education. I would do so again, willingly. Like all aspects of life there are bad apples in every bunch. There are also those who really are heroic. My best friend, PFC Paul O. Cuzzupe was KIA in Afghanistan. Paul enlisted and became a combat medic. The week prior to his death, he was recognized. He was recognized not for saving the life of a fellow American, but for his efforts to save a local child was injured by an explosion. When all others gave up, he continued to work on the child until he passed.

A week later, PFC Cuzzupe was gone as well. Some might say he was doing his job. He enlisted to do that. To me, he is a hero.

Welcome to America. Where we feed, shelter and educate convicted criminals, but allow those who have served honorably to sleep on a cardboard box in the dead of winter. Where an eighteen year old mother or father making minimum wage is guaranteed a Pell Grant for education, but GI Bill payments are denied or held due to a lack of funds.

The goals of the government or the military industrial complex should not reflect on all of us. Some us just really wanted to help and do what's right.

Sorry, my rant is over...