Help me understand…..

[Rick]

I get off work. I wash my hands, we had literally 130 mothertrucking cars come through today.

I’m a zombie.

My face is covered in grime and smudges of grease, nothing unusual for our line of work. I’m so tired a I frankly don’t give a shit how I look.

I stop at Petsmart to get my baby boys some food.

I’m wearing my work jacket, with my dealer name and brand. So I am extra polite, smiling, making polite conversation.

When a woman was standing in front of the treats I needed to grab.

Me: “Pardon me Ma’am I need to grab those right behind you”

Random Woman : huffs at me and rolls he eyes. Moved away from me like I was a bum asking for money.

As I turned she could see on my beanie that I served in the military.

She gasped, turned red “I’m so sorry I didn’t realize you were a veteran”.

I was polite. But I honestly wanted to say “What f*cking difference does that make”.

But I didn’t. I just smiled, nodded, said “yup” and walked to the register before she could make any small talk.

I’m seriously wondering why it’s ok to treat someone like a bum, but once people see we are a veteran they suddenly feel the need to be polite.

It’s like death and cancer. No matter what, when, who, how, or why. If someone died, or got cancer you have to say you are sorry.

Maybe it’s me.

It probably is.

Topic

[Javier Garcia Jr]

To be honest I think it’s a form of American propaganda. We have to be nice to our Veteran after Vietnam, and 9/11. Though I disagree. How do I know you didn’t commit a war crime? Discharged dishonorably? Run from the draft? Refused to sign your selective service paperwork?

My brother is a retired Sergeant Major, and we had a similar to discussion about fellow soldiers trying to use the “Veteran Card”; I once told some kid who made a smart remark to me at a Publix entrance that ‘he fought for me freedoms’, and I said “not sure why you were shot, but the last person to fight for my freedom was a WW2 Veteran”.

I’m also not a fan of people belittling others. For example, I recently bought a new car nothing fancy a Nissan Versa Sedan, but when I was car shopping I was given night and day treatment when I drove to some dealers in my 23 year old Honda Civic VS my former Cadillac Escalade.

I guess because I try not to live above my means I’m punished socially. Funny.

[Rick]

I’ve seen buddies turn on each other because one was a grunt, and the other was a mechanic. Some feel like they served more than others. I bring this up because I saw a commercial one time that was very moving, to me anyways.

I’ll share it, because I can’t honor it with words.

I don’t want people falling all over me because I’m a vet. I wear the beanie because my daughter bought it for me, and my wife tells everyone that will listen I served.

I try to hide it. I’m not ashamed of it. I just served the best I could.

I help my fellow vets because I want to, and it makes it feel more rewarding. We don’t feel honored or respected when we feel a ‘forced’ thank you. And I’ve corrected some loud mouth douche bags. Many of them were guys that were thrown out, or never made the cut to begin with.

[Rick]

[quote=”Gucci Mane” post=150806] I’m also not a fan of people belittling others. For example, I recently bought a new car nothing fancy a Nissan Versa Sedan, but when I was car shopping I was given night and day treatment when I drove to some dealers in my 23 year old Honda Civic VS my former Cadillac Escalade.

I guess because I try not to live above my means I’m punished socially. Funny.[/quote]

Don’t feel bad. I did a study when I was in college. Rich good looking people get what ever they want. Rich ugly people not as much. Poor ugly people like me just grab our ankles.

[Javier Garcia Jr]

Vietnam Veterans personally I feel deserve everyone respect, or at least sympathy. Not only did they lose the “war”, but many were given other forms of discharge than dishonorable. In many States anything besides honorable prevents you from any form of government aid, government jobs, or private sector jobs that receive financial aid from the state or federal government. So after the war they had to live life with no benefits for their efforts, or help from government if say they lost their job due to Veteran discrimination in 70s/80s.

Shit, I’m not even 30 and I couldn’t receive my diploma and degrees until the State of Florida verified with the University that I signed my selective service paperwork. I had to sign it at 16, which is pretty funny because technically it shouldn’t penalize me until 18.

[Rick]

I got an angry phone call because I didn’t register for selective service.
My response was “I signed up for the Marines, doesn’t that kind of mean the same thing?”

Nope…….

[Author]

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