On Mar 27, 2008, at 12:07 PM, Julia Thompson wrote:
> Article in Rolling Stone:
>
> http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/19733160/
> the_troubled_homecoming_of_the_marlboro_marine
>
> Blake Miller was in Fallujah, photographed there in a photo that
> became
> famous, and today is dealing with PTSD in Kentucky.
Thank you, Julia, for sending that to us. What a wrenching story.
It's very unlikely that my 11-year-old, Ryan, will grow up with
an interest in joining the military, but I want to keep a copy
of Cpl Miller's article handy so he can read this:
If present-day Blake came face to face with his teenage
self, he'd have more than words of warning. "I'd be
beating my ass with a shovel all the way through them
fuckin' cornfields," he says. "I'd ask myself, 'What the
fuck are you thinking?'"
So what was he thinking? "Get the fuck out of Kentucky,"
Miller says, his lip curling in a half-smile. "It was the
only way I knew to travel and see the world. I just
happened to pick a weird time to go. I got to travel, and
it was a life-altering experience, that's for sure."
I worry that saying something like that in the political climate
of 2008 -- that joining the Marines is the sort of decision that
should earn you an ass-beating with a shovel from your future
self -- demeans those who _do_ make that decision...
I want to say that I have a nice, big shovel in the garage in
case Ryan gets any crazy ideas, but that sounds elitist. Why is
it OK for Blake Miller or Nick's nephew Wes Canning to join the
military -- or one of my high school buddies, Staff Sgt. Kurt
Chebatoris (http://murphy.house.gov/Photos/?PhotoID=83563),
for that matter -- but not Ryan?
Dave
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