"It is the Soldier" Poem Goes Overboard

by Larry
(Florida)

As a Vietnam veteran, I'm sorry to say that the "It Is The Soldier" poem declaring soldiers to be the fount of all good things may be art but not truth.

Doesn't it get obvious down where the soldier is credited with granting our right to vote? What about women? Their right to vote came from their own fight and it wasn't armed. Soldiers probably were part of the holdup in women's voting.

To say that soldiers had something to do with all the good things -- OK. This always has been a team effort, this country, and soldiers are only one part.

Remember the home front. Remember that sculptors make the monuments, not soldiers. Political bodies pay the bills. Gravediggers deal with the remains.

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Larry, we think you're misreading the poem. It doesn't say soldiers "granted" those rights.

Did you read our comments directly below the poem? We said:

"This popular poem reminds us that without men and women willing to go into harm's way to preserve them, the freedoms granted by our Constitution, and taken for granted by so many, are worth little more than the piece of paper they're printed upon.

There are blogs and comments across the internet debating the content of the poem, some picking it apart by attempting to apply the words literally. Sadly, those who do so will never understand the true meaning of the poem -- that without our military members willing to defend them, those freedoms we cherish would quickly disappear.

So, while technically soldiers do not "give" us those freedoms, they do guarantee them. Those types of people just will never "get it," at least not until it's too late, and then they'll wonder what happened, and why the military didn't stop it."

We urge you to read the poem again, with these thoughts in mind. If there were not soldiers willing to defend those freedoms, we would not have them. It's that simple.

There are people today whose goal it is to see that Americans are stripped of those freedoms that are the cornerstone of America, and seek to enslave us to their way of life, or annihilate us. That should scare the pants off you.

Remember that military officers take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution," NOT the President. It is those freedoms bestowed by the Constitution that our military members protect for the rest of us.

And on this Thanksgiving week, and every other day of the year, we're so grateful that they do!