CarolfromTX
Senior Member
- Location
- Central Texas
Bear with me. I'm getting to my point. DH and I just got back from a little getaway to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We toured the USS Kidd, a WWII era destroyer that had been stationed, among other places, on the coast of Okinawa for the purpose of shooting down kamikaze attackers. We have toured quite a few memorials like this, and the Kidd was nicely preserved. As I was looking at the ship, I thought of the young men who had manned the guns, and fired the depth charges, and cooked the meals, and did all the things they needed to do. And I thought of how brave they must have been, and also how scared. I am not making this up. These thoughts went through my head. And then we arrive home and see on the news that the University of Virginia has canceled its Veterans Day 21 gun salute because some students might panic or be scared. Traumatized, even. There are not enough eye-roll emojis in the world to express my distain. And don't hand me any nonsense about gun violence either. You simply say when and what time it's happening, and it cannot be mistaken for anything else. This kind of attitude by administration that they need to provide coloring books and safe spaces does nothing to help students deal with the real world in a productive way. The real world can be cold and hard, and the students at UVa (and other places) need to grow a backbone.