Veterans are human too!

CPT Brandon Christensen — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 14:59:51 -0400

I am sure you have have read/heard about the article posted by NYT (New York Times) today about how we are linked to cults, hate groups, what have you.

While talking to someone on the streets, family, interviewing for a job, basically any conversation with another human being, have any of you got the feeling they were thinking this about you or even blatantly came out and said it?

I am for one outraged that this society thinks this about us or that even NY Times would even publish this article. Glad the VA posted a great response about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/opinion/veterans-and-white-supremacy.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/13800/breaking-veterans-are-people-too/

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Breaking: Veterans are People too | VAntage Point

Recently, the Veteran community has been forced to fight back on a disturbing narrative: Veterans are dangerous, violent people that society should be wary of. It doesn’t take much for some media outl...

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Apr 18 at 2014 4:40 PM

SGT Ben Keen — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 16:40:07 -0400

I read the articles too and yeah I'm pretty outraged too. I think this was a case of a person taking a fact from the story and twisting it around. The NYTimes will have a lot of clean up coming their way.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 18 at 2014 5:52 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 17:52:53 -0400

This is how (they) really feel. They being the ones who...

1) The culture of rape being pervasive

2) The alleged cheating by Missile personnel.

3) Toxic leaders

4) Adultery

5) Hate Speech against:

a) President

b) gays

c) women

d) other races

6) Suicidal veterans

7) homelessness

8) SHARP

Articles about it is our time to pay up!!!

Wow! And you know, people acting if this is exclusive to the military and while a lot of this IS happening it is not unique to the services.

This smacks of an agenda and only a person who has their eyes shut cannot put 2 and 2 together.

All the struggles by returning veterans against the back drop of hate directed against us and then you begin to see how it was in 1973.

Response by MSG Jose Colon made Apr 18 at 2014 11:58 PM

MSG Jose Colon — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 23:58:14 -0400

That is another reason I have never being a fan of the NY Times.

Response by Sgt Randy Hill made May 30 at 2014 1:05 PM

Sgt Randy Hill — Fri, 30 May 2014 13:05:04 -0400

Great topic. I think that the awareness of bringing mental issues of veterans to the forefront is good. However, people being people tend to stereotype us all as having PTSD and ready to commit violent acts. Awareness is great but the public stereotypes too much and this is a problem in our media. No one says anything about the vet who seems well adjusted. Why it is not newsworthy I guess.

Response by LCpl Steve Wininger made May 30 at 2014 3:32 PM

LCpl Steve Wininger — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:32:17 -0400

This is just another way the far left tries to demonize veterans to promote their agenda.
every segment of our society has it's bad people. To point out a few isolated incidents for the sake of branding an entire demographic is absurd.

The most troubling part of the article is that too many take as gospel what the New York Times and other left leaning media outlets say.

While the article mentions only a few incidents, how many never read past the headline or first paragraph. In fact, the first three paragraphs suggest that many veterans, especially those from the Vietnam era are part of this supremacy movement. By the time the average reader makes it to the fourth paragraph when she suggests it is only a small portion of vets, the liberal reader will have already judged vets as killers, white supremacists, and general degenerates of society.

Any media outlet that allows someone to take a couple facts and apply it to an entire group is irresponsible and negligent. Then again, that is what drives the Main stream media.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 23 at 2014 3:34 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 03:34:44 -0400

New York Times??? Trash propagandist media. They have no respect for service-members regardless of what they try to spin.

Response by SPC David S. made Dec 16 at 2014 11:35 AM

SPC David S. — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 11:35:11 -0500

Sir I feel this story could have been told from a much better perspective on the dangers of extremist ideologies yet the reporter elected to use hate and fear. The reporter/author Kathleen Belew neglects to suggest that many individuals that enter the military hold on to their extremist ideology during their military careers. The supposed correlation in war veterans and clan membership is lose at best. I would bet that if you look at recruits in law enforcement, paramedics, and firefighters you would also find a similar correlation as many are veterans looking to reintegrate into society. For her to say that veterans join these groups because of the military structure of these groups is moronic, callous, and is as just as indifferent to military service members as those she is speaking about. These members racial views are not those of the military. If anything the military has been at the vanguard of human rights when it comes to race or religion. Also at the end of her article she also goes into the mental health aspects of vets grasping to connect the dots suggesting that former SM's join up for hate groups because of war trauma again is reckless. The main reason these individuals join these groups is they identify with the indifferent message of hate based on skin color. Now give me an article on why racism is still prevalent and I might believe you do this for your day job and not a hack reporter.

Response by SPC David Shaffer made Dec 16 at 2014 4:49 PM

SPC David Shaffer — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 16:49:04 -0500

Sir, there are haters and extremists in most, if not all organizations. Why wouldn't there be in an organization that has members from so many races, different religions, and backgrounds? This is just another situation where there's one bad apple so they blame the tree. It's just crazy to think that way. It would be like someone blaming a gunmaker for a shooting....I guess they have, but you get the point.