|
Edited on Sun Apr-10-11 01:28 PM by Lost-in-FL
I was in the service during the Clinton years, when Newt was creating havoc in government for a few weeks and NO ONE, NOT ONE PERSON IN MY UNIT said a word to me about soldiers not getting their paychecks or LESs because of the government shutting down. I do remember about the Lewinski affair, Waco, Elian Gonzalez, Oklahoma Federal Building bombing, Kosovo, Columbine but... you would think that an underpaid E-4, single and living in the barracks, with a car payment, that is sending money to help her family, paying maxed out credit cards and a student loan would remember something as critical as not getting paid... right?
I do remember all of these events even when I had no basic political knowledge of any kind (like red was for republicans and blue for democrats), who had to learn the names of the president and vicepresident as part of my duty and didn't even know the branches of government. I remember how my friends used to bash liberals and Clinton about Kosovo and how ridiculous it was for us to get involved. I heard names at that time but it is just within this decade that I can recognize them all (Oh yeah... now I know who Newt, Tom Delay, Lieberman, Al Gore are... yeah... that's it, I remember those names back from the old days!). Now tell me... how it is that I don't remember my check being cut?
But all this week, FB and specially my e-mail inbox is plagued with stupid messages about how "unfair" it is for our "men and women sacrificing for our country" (which BTW, I am starting to get tired of that expression) to not get paid by Obama because he is shutting down government. They are wondering how they are going to pay their bills and how much added stress this would be for their families. I know this is not true and would like to reply to all of how they ridiculous this sounds but the I think to myself that yes... they deserve to be suffer and be scared about the posibility of not getting a paycheck. I am fighting my urge to think this way because I am not one of them.
Many of my friends even received a partial LES (Leave & Earnings statement) with a 1/4 of their regular pay on the 6th of the month! Service members normally receive LESs on the 1st and 15th of the month.
|