gotterdammerung… here’s a hint

I’m new to this fine site…

I joined just a little over a week ago, and ever since I’ve wracked my brains on what to post as my first essay. There are so many good writers here and so many issues covered it’s tough for a noob to come up with something new.

In an effort to get my feet wet and to find out the ins and outs of publishing an essay, I photshopped together a somewhat inane pictorial (I won’t even call it an essay, because it wasn’t really) attempt to make people at least smile a little, and it poked fun at the “Balloon Boy” incident, although I turned it around to be about President Obama. After I published it I thought to myself, “That’s kinda dumb, maybe I shouldn’t have done it” but I left it up anyway, not even thinking it could offend anyone.

The next day I read your essay and you opened my eyes to a point of view that I hadn’t even considered. You see, I agree with you. Although I have never been involved with any of the fields of service that you discussed, my wife has. She has been an EMT and a police dispatcher in the past and I have to agree that your point of view is valid. After reading your post and also the link you supplied, I immediately deleted my essay and I ask that you excuse my noobistic enthusiasm. Thanks…

by: gotterdammerung @ Tue Oct 20, 2009 at 09:48:55 PDT

1) speak to your background

I’m ex-military, ex-bomb technician, ex-law enforcement, and a veteran.  So, I have a few different areas of which I can speak knowledgeably.  Think of all you’ve done, seen, and experienced.  Then, apply those to the news articles you read.

2) speak with the passion you have

News “reports”.  We rant, rave, and do the things journalists shouldn’t.

Let me illustrate for you…

I found this article at Crooks and Liars (another blog if you don’t frequent you should).

Proposed Army Program Will Encourage Soldiers to Look On The Bright Side of Combat

This is asinine.  The ONLY positive thing to take away from combat is that you lived.

What happens to soldiers like Frikken has led Army leaders to develop a resiliency program that urges GIs to look inward and discover how combat may have made them emotionally stronger.

Yes, you are now strong enough to handle the blood and guts you see, the raping, the executions.  Congratulations.  Here’s your trophy.

As Susie from C&L writes:

Help me, Rhonda. Help me understand how your being sexually molested while held captive made you a better person, and that you wouldn’t trade that experience for all the world.

That you survived it?  That you will now have to have those memories?  And, the good thing was, you got through it.  Here’s your trophy.

I’ve been to war.  Twice.  You simply hope you live.  And if you are in heavy combat, you will simply come back one fucked-up motherfucker.  Why do you think Vietnam Vets wouldn’t talk to their own families about what they went through?

Let me tell you what war is…

It’s cold.  It’s a cot on a hill next to your vehicle.  It’s not knowing when, or if, you will get “hit” with an attack.  The food sucks.  You rarely have communications out.  It’s your family worrying every day if you are alive.

It’s blood and guts.  Some the enemy.  Some your buddies.

They are images that never leave you.

You MIGHT be able to keep them from driving you to extreme acts… but… you will never get them out of your mind.

And they want to put a smiley face on war?  Ask, “what about it made you STRONGER?”

Well, counselor, I didn’t puke my guts up the third time….

Fucking idiots.