Cut an Onion.

So today I read an article that was posted on an Army Facebook page I go to often for a laugh. U.S. Army WTF! moments normally leaves me smiling, but today their link left me fuming. I was unsure if it was just something too personal, or if it was really that fucked up to a lot of people. The article in question was from the Onion and can be read here. It discusses or politicians pushing a bill forward to bring back the dead soldiers from the war. It was done very tongue in check, as they usually present information. However this is something I can't seem to find humor in. I am a sick fuck too. I mean I tell dead baby jokes, poke fun at dead enemies, ask amputees if they could use a hand, or other real sick dark crappy jokes, and I could not laugh about this. So it made me wonder if it was just to personal, or was it that screwed up that I could not laugh at it all.

I think the issue lies in the deep sacrifice of those that had that blank check cashed. You see I really do not care if you believe in or support the issues that brought our country too war, but you do not disrespect our dead. This to me was the issue behind filming the dead coming home. It was not about hiding the horrors of war, it is about giving them some privacy and respect. They died for you, even if you don't believe in the damn cause they died in service of. You do not lay their remains down in shallow unmarked graves. You do not disrespect their wishes because you do not share their religious views. You do not shame them or their families to get press like the Westborro Baptist Church assholes. You just should not do that if you understand even one bit what it means to be an American.

I have buried a few service members in my day. Hell I have been to more funerals for fallen service members then I have been for my own blood family. People put homage to their friends and family all the damn time, and yes it sucks that people die. It is part of life though. This though is different, because these Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen died well before their natural time, and they died for a belief many people take for granted. They died for the ideas and principles of liberty that moved our founding fathers, and brought a colony to war. It was these very ideals that were paid for in blood at the very birth of our nation. It was this blood bond that is carried to this day by each one of them that puts a uniform on. It is this very real sacrifice that calls to me. I can not trifle with that.

So I am guessing that it was not just me that got pissed reading. I can guess that it was not an irrational personalization that made this offensive. I am gonna go out on a limb and say it is justified, and not me hypocritically reacting to an off color joke that strikes close to home. I will joke about death. I will joke about cancer. I will joke about things because it helps me cope with them. I deal with them everyday. I can not however laugh at this. I can say that it went to far and it was really in poor taste. So in closing I say FUCK YOU Onion. I say that without regret or the compulsion to feel guilty or two faced. I feel justified.