The illusion of freedom

This is more or less related to the blog directly below this one about Gordon Johnson. I'm afraid I'm not done venting about this jaggoff.

I was in the military for 21 years, and I have a point of view that dramatically differs from the Gordon Johnson's of this world. For some unknown reason, I truly believed when I was in the service that I was a defender of all this country stood for - Freedom, Democracy, Liberty - and no matter where I was or what I was doing, that was my driving force behind a career in the service. My time in service paralleled the terms of service of six Presidents, 2 Democrats and 4 Republicans. There were decisions made by those men and the Congress under them that affected me both positively and negatively during those two plus decades. There were times I had to wonder just what the hell I was thinking doing what I did (I think to the February's in Kansas sleeping in the woods in sub-zero temperatures), and there were the opposite times where I was the proudest and most content person on the planet. I went places and did things I enjoyed; I went places and did things I absolutely hated. But I did everything with honor and professionalism, and I never lost sight of my ultimate calling - a defender of all that is the United States - good, bad, or indifferent.

I've been to other countries and witnessed first hand how others live in this world. In those journeys I've seen the good - England, France, & Germany. I've also seen the repressed and the destitute -Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq. Mr. Gordon Johnson and others of his ilk (and ilk is the kindest word I can come up with right now) need to take their heads out of the sand and book a trip through Expedia to some of these places, then come back and see what a good deal we have here.

And this good deal is of course the root cause of our problems.

You see Mr. Gordon Johnson...high school civics teacher and newly minted poster child for the terminally stupid...doesn't get it. What is "it"? "It" is the fact that our freedoms are a privilege, not a right. If you don't think so, ask someone at your local state penitentiary. Mr. Johnson doesn't understand that just because you have a right to protest - it is not a requirement that you do so. There is nothing in the constitution that says you cannot be inconvenienced, pissed off by someone or something, or have luck go against you. Irrespective of that well-known fact, when things do get under the skin of the Gordon Johnson's of our nation, they get mad and take their act too far. If you don't like tight security at a ball game, don't go. Hate arriving at the airport 2 hours early? Drive.

But noooooooo....not Mr. Gordon Johnson. He just has to get his petty point across and if it compromises the security of every other parent bringing their children to a game, that's perfectly acceptable to him. As long as he gets what he wants, he's happy. If he doesn't - he throws the modern day equivalent of a childish tantrum by forging allegiances with others who are just like him, and executes his tantrum through the courts system using public funds to litigate his cause. And to hell with everybody else.

That's the truth. Gordon Johnson is a big baby, and an asshole.

I started this blog with telling you what my service meant to me personally. I considered myself a defender of our rights and privileges, just like Mr. Johnson considers himself. In my life-time, I've never asked anyone to help me out; never filed a complaint because a co-worker started talking about her religious preferences in the office; never demanded that what I once defended be afforded me as a matter of course. In other words, the America I sweat blood for - the America that people like Gordon Johnson wordsmith into a confusing, never-ending blur of bullshit that makes no sense at all - has never been asked by me to pay a little of it back. You know why?

I don't think I'm owed anything.

Peace.