ORIGINAL: Paladin06
We have not come very far at all in all these years and all those who have gave their life for this great nation. We still see a "black man" and a "white female".
Almost makes me sick to my stomach that I might have wasted the best 20 years of my life standing on the front line of freedom to perserve this great nation and its people. [:@]
I understand what you're saying here. Its very easy to
see the differences between all of us and use that as a basis for categorization. But I think we've come a long way in that we categorize instead of prejudge. There's no denying Obama is a black man and Palin is a white woman. That's what we "see". But we can also "see" that neither is a puppet of their political party.
40 years ago, there was no liklihood that either would have been on the Presidential Election ballots. But here we are, and regardless of how the results of the election pan out, it WILL be a "first" in our history. That IS progress. That's something that's been won with blood from our vets.
We forget that since we're all human and make mistakes, our government - made up of fallable people - will make mistakes too. We unfairly expect more of our elected officials.
Greg, you didn't waste a minute of your service time. You helped us get to this point - along with every other vet - where we have the right and responsibility to make history in a few weeks. This IS a great nation - as you pointed out twice. It's not perfect, but we can all work to make it better with the benefit of the diversity we all contribute. The whole is far less than the sum of it's parts.