A Special Fourth of July Thank You to Service Members, Veterans and Their Families

You are very welcome. I am very proud to be a Veteran of the US Army. My children also thank you for this post. This father continues to serve and went to Kabul, Afghanistan for a year throughout the war.

Talk is cheap. Within the last week, I've donated to the USO and to the Wounded Warrior Project (a favorite charity of Bill O'Reilly). I've been dontating to the USO regularly ever since those Islamic terrorist dirtbags attacked the United States, but this was my first donation to the Wounded Warrior Project. I put my money where my mouth is even though the Democratic State Legislature (directly and indirectly) and the Obama Administration are taking more of it away in taxes every chance they get.

http://www.uso.org

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Give what you can to the charity of your choice to support the troops. It's a great feeling to know that you REALLY support the United States' Armed Forces once you do it. Trust me, I know.

Nice message from Senator Sullivan. Too bad the only way Spanky and SOM can respond is with more complaints.

And SOM.....I find it ironic that you're whining about taxes in response to a post thanking servicemen and women for their sacrifices. Do you really think that we can support our troops in every way, including medical care for wounded vets, through donations to charity?

I've always been a supporter of having more of my tax dollars go to support the US Armed forces and to build more prisons. It's the other spending areas where I'm not so convinced that my tax dollars are being spent wisely. Sullivan was in the Naval Reserve. Laurie53219 was in the Army. I wasn't. The best I can do is to give money and that's my way of showing support.

My comment about 'talk is cheap' was directed at those who SAY they support the troops, but never served in the Armed Forces themselves, and to those who never donated their own time or money to the troops.

I have no idea what being the chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs really means. Is it just a nice title, or is some real, substantial work performed by this committee on behalf of vets?

Nobody gets to pick and choose how their tax dollars are spent, SOM. I'm paying to fund your priorities and you're paying to fund mine. That's the way it works. I understand that my taxes will be used to benefit my community; whether community is defined as my neighborhood, my city, my country, or my world. You want your taxes to be used to benefit you and whatever you think is important. I don't make a lot of money, but I have what I need. I'm happy to have some of my money go for projects that will benefit others. I'd be willing to part with more of my money for programs and projects that will benefit the larger community whether we're talking about the Zoo Interchange or an RTA or universal healthcare or development of green technology or better schools or support for returning veterans. Even if I don't benefit directly, I know that anything that makes my community better makes my life better, too.

tosaoutsider: I think you and I can agree that we want our tax dollars spent wisely. Did you see the front page story in today's newspaper about questionable travel expenditures by Governor Doyle and others on his staff? Granted, it is a small piece of the entire budget pie, but if State legislators and staff are that careless about spending our money on that kind of stuff, what confidence do we have that they act any differently when it comes to more costly programs that really do impact our lives?

Sparky: Thank you for your service, sir. Do you have any opinion on the performance of the Senate Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs chaired by Senator Sullivan as it applies to your life? I have no knowledge of what they do or don't do for the vets since I'm 'only' a civilian.

I would think that the Chair of Veteran Services and Military Affairs would know the number of WI guardsmen deployed. The number is around 4000, 3200 of which belong to the 32d Brigade.

http://dma.wi.gov/dma/arng/32nd_Updates/deployed_Updates.asp

As the Fourth passes, I thank two of my uncles for their service: Lee Bryson, who passed last year, a naval veteran who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor; and William McCarthy, who died in a kamikaze attack off Okinawa near the end of the war.