Click here for feature stories
This Christmas, give thanks to troops serving overseas
By Anthony McConnell
Trail Editor
An interesting milestone passed this past weekend. It didn’t make huge headlines and was barely covered by the mainstream media. As of Saturday, Nov. 25, the United States has spent more time fighting the war in Iraq than it did in all of World War II.
This is not brought up in as an effort to spurn controversy, or as the start of an anti-war tirade, but as a tidbit of information most people should be aware of and as a segue to a much larger issue.
The phrase “I am against the war, but I support the troops” is something that is thrown around quite a bit lately. This concept is hard for some to understand and even harder for those who proclaim it to follow.
Most of the people who use this phrase take little action to actually support the troops, they are content to stick a magnetic ribbon to their car and call it good.
This is a very passive way of supporting a group of people willing to die halfway around the world in order to ensure the way of life we all enjoy. Freedom is not free and just sticking a magnet to a car is a fairly lousy way to support anything, let alone those in the armed services.
As we enter this time of giving, maybe it is time we all step up our support. There are many ways this can be done.
First you could make a donation to your local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The VFW provides our troops with far too many services to list here, but one way they use donated funds is to buy phone cards for troops stationed overseas. This allows our servicemen and woman to keep in contact with their families while they are serving their country.
Another great way to support the troops is through a Web site set up by the Department of Defense.
The site www.americasupportsyou.com provides those willing to make a difference many opportunities to do so. Through this site you can do everything from donating a computer to sending a care package to sending a simple note.
According to many soldiers, it is the simple things, like a note saying thank you or just a DVD of the latest Hollywood blockbuster that have the biggest impact on their daily lives while at war.
So this year for Christmas, instead of buying that gift for some relative who will just return it, do our troops a favor and send them a gift to say thank you for their sacrifice.