If there had been Facebook during Vietnam

Over the last week, the rather uneducated Facebook post of a girl has gone viral.  Although her comments were less than tactful and showed a great lack of maturity, they still irritated me.  It was a perfect example of the opinion of some of those that we may interact with on any given day. 

That being said, the number of individuals that have this type of opinion is minimal.  Considering that we are living in a time where social media makes it very easy for individuals to voice their opinion.  Also, considering that we live in a time that our military makes up the smallest percent of the total population that is has in over a century.  One other fact to keep in mind - our military is all volunteer, no one received a notice in the mail saying they were to report to a certain location to be part of the draft.

Imagine if Facebook had been existent during the Vietnam war.  These veterans were already coming home to being called baby killers and being spit on.  They were treated like less than dirt on the bottom of somebody's shoe.  So many of them perished after they were forced into the ranks.  They dealt with horrible things that someone should never have to endure, let along enduring it after the horrible things they had been through, things they had seen. 

Many of those who protested and treated these veterans this way were those who had never worn a uniform or loved someone that wore that uniform.  The same is true today.  Many who have a certain opinion are those who have never walked a day in a service member's shoes.  They have no idea what it is like to see that uniform walk away and they have no idea how it feels to give that final salute to a flag draped coffin. 

The fact of the matter is - there is a huge general population out there.  A huge population that will never understand why service members deploy, heck, there's a lot that are around the military that don't always understand either.  But there's also a general population out there that are teachers, nurses, firefighters, blue collar workers, and so on, that we may never understand.  

We could learn a huge lesson from the Vietnam veterans.  We can focus on the individuals who have an opinion that's not worth our time or we could make darn sure that our service members know they are supported.  I'm going to do my best to walk in the path those veterans have set forth - that is so simply stated in two words... NEVER AGAIN!