Mr. Shapiro,
I generally could care less for campus politics and political agendas. In a school famous for its International Service program, I have found my niche as a History major. I love to read and learn and to decide for myself. That held true until I read your last two opinions.
Initially I was very put off, to use the sublime term. According to your opinion and print, I am a warmonger, a victim. One who has rendered dishonorable service to my country and cooperated in campaigns of greed and malfeasance against other nations and the environment. I will readily admit that when I read your Jan. 31 article, my response was less what you might call “diplomatic.”
But then a moment of calm filled all the way until today. Then I had to read yet another of your articles. (Don’t worry; I’m now going to start saving them now for when I run out of toilet paper during the next snowmaggedon.) I now feel compelled to offer to you why I truly can sleep well at night despite your petty pandering and insults.
It’s very simple. You have no credibility to me.
I’ve read that you’re a graduate student in the School of International Service. What service between high school, undergraduate and graduate studies have you rendered? In your columns all I’ve read thus far seem to highlight the distinction that you’ve spend your entire life thus far in school, reading, commenting and judging other peoples positions of which you yourself have no experience. I hate to tell you this, but education does not equal experience or knowledge. I’ve heard how you organize protest here at “great personal risk.” Standing up for your beliefs always entails risk. That’s what I did when I volunteered to go to Iraq.
As far as I have read and heard, you never served you country in any branch of the armed forces, let alone in any capacity that you mentioned as appropriate to you. You mock and rally against the institution (re: Jan. 31) as a whole that I spent 10 years of my life serving in, only to turn around and then claim that your being virtuous because of the anguish you feel towards seeing wounded veterans (re: Feb. 8).
Last year I participated in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution’s Civil Military Dialogue. Half of the group was veterans and half were committed peace activists. We didn’t change each other’s minds, nor did anyone become the “bestest of friends,” but we all left with a better understanding of each other’s respective positions. Where were you?
In the year that I have been at AU since transferring here, I have met many outstanding students, both veterans and civilians, through AU Vets. Membership is open to all and unrestricted except for the position of president. One of the most intelligent and politically aware students at this school was our vice president last year and she is a civilian member. But I have never seen you at any of our meetings. Why is that?
You mentioned wanting to abolish the military because of the anguish you feel upon seeing wounded veterans, but I have heard of no program or campaign from you to do anything to relieve their burden. Comparatively, last year AU Vets mailed boxes of morale gifts to deployed service members, including our own vice president who was deployed in Iraq, and raised money for a fallen soldier’s scholarship fund. If you’re so committed, how come your outreach is so shallow?
Sounds like the definition of hypocrite to me. What services were you rendering that lets you pass judgment on me when I was leading my Marines down the roads of Fallujah and Ramadi in 2005? What sacrifice were you making in 2006 when I had to tell the families of two of my Marines that I was sorry their sons didn’t come back? What were you doing in 2007 when I was back in Iraq, voluntarily, because I valued my friends staying alive more than my own safety? How about you just describe for me what moral position lets you describe everything I have down as “warmongering” and “wrong” when I haven’t heard about you enduring the loss of 13 friends between 2003 and 2009.
A victim? I volunteered to enlist. I volunteered to stay in the Marine, twice. I volunteered for Iraq, three times. I am not a victim, Mr. Shapiro, until it comes to enduring your libel under your constitutionally protected right of free speech. But then again, I sleep well at night because you have no credibility to me.
John Crown College of Arts and Sciences, 2012
