I recently witnessed the country music scene for the first time at a Luke Bryan concert. The All-American idol who amassed a giant following across America’s heartland took the stage in his classic trucker hat, tight jeans and boots. It was a high-budget production with plenty of lighting affects and fireworks that shot up and exploded above our heads.
Midway through the show, he stopped the music and asked the fans to show their support for the troops, and the crowd of 50,000 fans went ballistic as we all stood up and sang the national anthem. At the end, the fans erupted into a cheer of “USA…USA”…and the show went on.
It was all terribly superficial. The sight of people who profess their “support for the troops” through bumper stickers and standing ovations at sporting events is enough to make me gag. The truth is that most Americans live in a fantasy world of sports, youtube clips and shitty pics of someone’s veggie omelette and did nothing to earn it.
There’s a difference between a cheerleader and a supporter.
Suffice it to say, unless you’re in the 1% who currently serves, or an immediate family member thereof, you’ve probably done absolutely nothing to support the troops aside from pay your taxes and paste a $2.00 bumper sticker on the back of your truck bed. You’re quick to criticize anyone who questions military objectives, and quick to raise a Coors in honor of those who protect your freedom. You vote for candidates who appear on battleships and promise to fight the ‘bad guys’, and you dress in fatigues in search of a clueless herd of elk to show how expert you are with your guns.
You’ve probably never met a veteran with post traumatic stress disorder or CTE, nor have you seen a battlefield or waited months to receive treatment from the Department of Veteran Affairs for the the mysterious “Gulf War Syndrome” for which no official explanation was offered.
The stark reality is that most of us live on the sidelines, and hope to stay there, as the troops we ‘support’ embark on a series of missions we know little about. So the next time you ‘show your support’ for the troops, make sure to give yourself an extra pat on the back for doing your part to make the world a safer a place.
Nick IV Productions 