Friday, October 16, 2009

A Vietnam Vet Speaks and Boy, Is He Confused

So yesterday, I run into a man wearing a baseball cap saying "Viet Vet".

See, I don't think that's anything to brag about. What are they trying to say? "I killed peasants who were trying to improve their lives and I'm damn proud of it"? But that doesn't fit on a cap?

So this guy starts telling me how his wife went without medical care for two years, until they got poor enough to get public aid, and how she's ashamed of her medical card, but he thinks that he deserves it, since he paid taxes for years and all.

So I say that in other countries, people just get health care as a right. No shame, just medical treatment. And he says, oh yeah, that's how it should be.

So I say, but the US spends too much on war, so they tell us we can't afford health care.

OK, now he's torn. So he says, well, I'm glad there's no draft, because my son doesn't have to go into the military like I did. I was forced.

So I push a little, and point out that the US is waging two wars and is trying for more and we can't afford it.

This confuses him. He wants health care, but he's all about US dominance. So he says that the US should just go in and kill everyone, and then it would be over and we wouldn't have to pay anymore money.

So I say that that is uncivilized.

So he says, "I don't mean we should nuke them", in an aggrieved, misunderstood voice. How could I possibly have thought he meant nuke them when he just meant kill them all with conventional weapons? Jeeeez.

So I say we should mind our own business and not try to dominate the world.

Well, he didn't think we should dominate the world, but the world needed to do what we want, or we should kill them.

Then his wife put a stop to our conversation.

So. He's for universal health care, and against the draft, but he's for US imperial domination and mass murder of resisting dominees.

Does that make him a Democrat or a Republican?


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A Fox fan.

ryk said...

A perfect example of the average American. A blend of intellectually laziness and absolute certainty.

Anonymous said...

Live in Murphy and have seen a huge surge in I am a (fill in your war)vet. What even gets me more is that people come up and thank them for their service. I always wonder if they really went to war. My own drafted husband at age 18 ( says he was too dumb to know) is adamantly against war and loves to jingle under his breath, "no church, no state, no war, no hate.

wagelaborer said...

Thanks, anonymous and Ryk, for clarifying and classifying.

Must be hard to live in Murphy and hold those sentiments, anon.

My Dad was in WWll and came out of it without a profound hatred of war, a loss of religion, and a political radicalization.

So that part was good.

wagelaborer said...

AAHH, I don't know how to edit. I meant to say that my Dad came out WITH a hatred for war.