Today I was scrolling through Facebook, and I stumbled upon a post about the passing of Prince. I briefly looked at it and thought, "Oh that's sad" and carried on. The more I scrolled, the more posts I found about Prince's passing. Now don't get me wrong, Prince was a legend, but there is something wrong here. When a celebrity dies there are thousands of posts and their production sales go through the roof. Everyone knows they died. Yet, when an American soldier dies protecting this great nation, no one bats an eye.
The brave men and women who serve this country should be given the same, if not more respect than a singer or an actor. I have seen many movies and I listen to a lot of music but compared to what happens in war, performers should not be paid near as much as a soldier.
A good friend of my mother had a son, and he is an Iraqi war veteran. He tore his ACL when his convoy was hit with a grenade. He never noticed until he came home from war. Now for him to get surgery to fix this, he has to jump through every hoop and and basically beg to get his leg fixed. I know of elderly war veterans who have to drive all over creation to get service that is covered by VA. These men and women risked their lives and watch their friends die and they can't get service at a local hospital. But, you walk into any ER waiting room and there are people there on Medicaid, with their brand new iPhone and fancy handbags, fighting over a $3 copay. Like, what?
Another thing wrong with America is the news with the protestors standing on the American flag. The anger and shame that I feel when I see this is something I should never have to feel. I have friends risking their life so that these people can disrespect them. Yet, when we say something offensive to another person, there is a huge uproar. People hear things they don't like and immediately seek to end the opposition. When participation trophies are given to everyone "so everyone feels like a winner" is such a ridiculous thing. Parents are treating their kids with the mentality of "of oh not my child." Yes, your child is a bully/lazy/druggie/disrespectful/whatever you want to say. No wonder kids don't have respect anymore, they are so use to winning all the time it is just expected. Mommy and daddy will always be there to fix the mistakes and there will never be consequences.
Consequences are a scary thing when you actually have to face them, but if we look at our presidential candidates, we have learned that we don't have to face those. A certain candidate is a criminal and another wants to build a wall while another wants free everything. No one knows who is telling the truth and who is lying. (They are politicians, so I safely assume they are all lying.) No one wants to answer the real problems like America's substantial debt, ISIS and inflation. Rather they are more worried about gay marriage and marijuana legalization.
There is a huge war going on in the Middle East that all of America is turning a blind eye to. There are starving people in third-world countries and we could care less. People are dying and we are more worried that minimum wage isn't enough to by the newest iPhone. America has become a laughing stock of other nations. Our priorities are no where near where they should be. We focus on the bad things. A football player makes more than a soldier. Working at McDonald's is now a full-time career instead of a place holder. A performer makes more than a teacher.
We aren't the great country we once were. We need to fix America now.
