How We Support Our Troops - Except the "Big" Ones

Post 9/11 I was pounding the war drum with the vast majority of Americans. As liberal as I am I had a Gadsden flat, albeit the naval version which is thirteen red and white stripes behind the snake and the Don't Tread on Me text, on my desk at work well ahead of the Tea Party's co-opting of the image. The invasion of Afghanistan was something for which I had been calling since the latter years of the Clinton administration. The ousting of the Taliban was way high on my list. Then the whole mission changed. Iraq became the target and the Bush administration created all sorts of reasons for why that mission should have full backing of the American populace. The invasion of Iraq was obviously wrong for so many reasons. As Democrats and even some Republicans in D.C. questioned the new war front, backers of the Bush administration cynically began to get the PR machine rolling and pumping out the "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbon stickers. The ubiquitous symbol wasn't about the troops at all. The message conveyed through these and the American flag lapel pin was that if you're against Bush and his policies you're against America; you're against the troops. You're against the soon to be over 4,000 Americans who paid with their lives to exact revenge on the man who shamed George H.W. Bush. The 40,000 plus who would come home injured. Those who would speak out against the Bush policies were shamed into silence. That was a very dark period for public discourse. Of course that changed once Obama was elected and it was once again okay to pillory the president for whatever reason you wanted. The reason I've jumped back on the soapbox today is directly related to the attitude fostered by the Bush PR machine. The conservatives who pushed that vision of America are mostly associated with the Tea Party these days. And in the deep red Alabama in which I live they are alive and well despite the rising backlash against their sort of conservatism. Though the most hardcore of the Tea Party types are of the middle class to poor variety who are more interested in social issues like abortion and LGBT issues, the money to fund the movement comes from business owners and an entrenched landed gentry who have made fortunes off of real estate. These are the people who control the local economy. I don't have figures but I would guess that of the small business community in Baldwin County where I reside, roughly 75-90% would identify with the Tea Party movement. At least that's what I get from what I hear from people like that personally. Say something about Obama and it's pretty likely you will get the usual socialist, Marxist, Kenyan talking points out of them. But these are the folks who "Support Our Troops". And that's what I'm getting to. I have neighbors who are both veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. They have a toddler aged daughter and are fighting to get by. The mother is pretty, personable, bright. She also survived an IED attack in which her Humvee was flipped three times. She and I are both currently unemployed. We try to keep each other posted on who's hiring and that sort of thing. She recently told me a story that filled me with so much anger I really had to work to control myself. She has experience, as do I, waiting tables at the many touristy restaurants in the area. The Redneck Riviera as it's called; where thousands of red state tourists flock for their version of family beach fun. Conservative "Christians" who don't mind talking to you about their thoughts on that "nigger" Obama. So my neighbor went to a local restaurant, Tacky Jacks, to apply for a server job. Tacky Jacks is owned by an old family with considerable real estate holdings in the area. Conservatives across the board. Tacky Jacks has several locations and is a thriving business. My neighbor is overweight. Not morbidly obese, just big. If you had her as a waitress, even if you were a shallow douchebag, you would overlook it immediately as soon as you saw her outgoing personality and sense of humor. She was told at Tacky Jacks that they wouldn't hire her because she's too big. Yea, too big. A woman, a mother, who risked her life and nearly paid the ultimate price in service to her country is too big to wait tables at a crappy restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. A restaurant run by "Support Our Troops" types. To add insult to injury here, I have eaten at Tacky Jacks a couple of times. Both times I had very pretty waitresses who were from Romania and Ukraine. These Eastern Europeans are all over the area working in the hotel and food service industry. Moldovans, Russians, Bulgarians, etc. They are brought in because these industries claim to not be able to find locals to fill the positions. "Support Our Troops". Baldwin County is a poor county. Except for the wealthier folks who live near the beach the vast majority of the rest of us are paycheck to paycheck. The wealthy fight to keep their taxes low and buy politicians who will guarantee that. The result of that is little to no public transportation. The poor frequently don't have reliable vehicles so they can't get to open jobs at the beach. Instead of working on a solution to link these people with open jobs the hotels and restaurants bring in foreign labor and put them up in condos and apartments they own or rent for that purpose. Of course the workers brought in aren't too big. They only bring in attractive and young men and women who frequently overstay their visas and job hop while they are here. I just want to call out these "Pro American" Tea Party folks for what they are. They don't give a crap about our troops. They don't care about anything but an America that lets them keep their chunk of the pie at whatever cost. They call themselves Christian. Yet the Jesus I know about and have read about, his words not mine, would have nothing to do with them. This is Jesus: store not up treasures on earth, turn the other cheek, render unto Caesar, if a man should take your cloak, easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle, blessed are the poor, etc. Their Jesus is one that says if you pray you will be wealthy. Blessed with material things. Don't pay taxes. Keep the blacks out of power. God loves America. Kill your enemies. And don't hire the mother, the vet, who almost lost her life serving her America because she is "too big".