Responding to the Stupid

Sometimes you’re in the loop. Sometimes you’re not.

This week I’m not. Or at least I wasn’t.

I’ve been so wrapped up in Kate that I have blocked Afghanistan and what’s happening there from my mind. It’s probably a survival tactic – only one major worry at a time and all that.

But yesterday I went online and discovered that pretending to be an ostrich with my head in the sand does nothing to stop the dangers of the mission in the sandbox.

We lost another hero.

Another husband will be coming home in a flag draped box. Another wife made widow.

I read the article. Blame Bern Bromley – I read every word of every article I see twice over. A left over from my Pen days.

The second time I read the comments people have left.

Many of them are words of condolences to the family of Trooper Good. Many express their thanks at his sacrifice and their prayers for strength for the family.

But there’s a pocket of folks who just can’t resist the opportunity to be stupid.

They’re typically educated folks. People with degrees, and nothing better to do than to shove their heads so far up their collective arses that their hold on reality is seriously compromised.

They’re the ones who write comments like: “bring them home” and “another Canadian life sacrificed for nothing” and say things like “what are they over there for anyways”. They go on and on about the monetary cost of the war and about how Canadian soldiers should be peacekeepers and not “warmongers”.

And when another person responds to their asinine comments and tells them this is neither the time nor the place for their foolishness they get their feathers ruffled and hide behind the “freedom of speech” banner.

We’ll here’s my official response to these folks. Feel free to borrow any or all of it:

You only have the freedom of speech because brave men like Trooper Good are willing to go to some Godforsaken part of this planet and defend your right to do so.

Your freedom, your right to be hurtful, nasty and vindictive are intertwined with the Canadian military and their existence in this country.

The CBC website and the articles about the dead soldiers are being read by the wives, mothers and children of these heroes. When you write your nonsense you are disrespecting the memory of their loved one. You are insulting their sacrifice and you are spitting in their faces.

I’m not saying you can’t be upset about Canada’s involvement in the war. That’s your right as a Canadian citizen. You can question any decision of your government. And the same soldiers you are insulting will defend to the death your right to do so.

If you don’t agree with Canada’s involvement write your MP, circulate a petition and present it to your representative, stage a protest outside a government office, write letters to the editor.

Don’t post your comments where the only people that are reading them are the folks that have already given everything! Don’t make the wives and mothers feel more pain unnecessarily!

Have some respect. If for nothing else – for the fact that our loved ones are willing to leave what they love most, go live in the most hostile environment imaginable in order to bring some semblance of order all because their government has asked them to. They’re not forced. They’re not conscripted. They’re simply willing to take on any task imaginable because the men and women we vote for have decided that they will do it.

Think about that.

Do you honestly think these men and women want to be separated from their families? Do you think they’re not scared that each time they talk to their loved ones that it could be the last?

You don’t have to support the mission. But you darned well should support the troops and their families. And writing your crap on the CBC and CTV comment boards and spewing your stupid comments where we can hear them isn’t support – it’s insult, and you should be ashamed.

Day 139