Geneseo is largely a liberal college. Students generally support gay marriage, are all about going green and oppose the current war. Yet, at the same time, military approval is a general consensus.
Few people will voice an outright lack of support for the U.S. military. How can you oppose a person who is willing to die to defend our freedom, while we sit here doodling in a classroom and drinking beer? But when I tell classmates my boyfriend is a U.S. Marine, I get a look of complete confusion, followed by the question, "Why?"
Why would someone give up a college career to be screamed and shot at? Why would you choose to take part in a commonly unsupported war, when you could be benefiting our country at home with a degree?
Well, why did you choose to go to college?
The men and women who compose our military regiments do so for the same reasons why we're English, biology or dance majors. They're doing what they believe will make a difference in the world. They're doing what they're good at. And they just happen to be representing our country as well.
It's especially smart to join now with the economy as it is. These men and women will fare far better financially in the future than some students here. While we're paying off college debts years from now, they'll be earning their degrees for free.
Beyond that, we all need to keep in mind the war we're seeing is just the media's portrayal of what's going on overseas. After talking to a few soldiers who have been deployed and hearing what really goes on over there, I think you'd be completely selfish not to support what they're doing.
While we're sitting in class learning about Afghanistan, these soldiers are witnessing firsthand what it means not to have freedom. The people who live in Afghanistan are told what to do with every second of their lives - we're fighting to give them what we take for granted. If you don't know why anyone would fight for this country, I suggest you pay a visit to the country of your choice and see if its people have the freedoms and benefits we enjoy here.
If wanting to change someone's world for the better isn't a good enough reason, watch a clip from 9/11 and tell me you don't wish you could do something to stop tragedies like this from happening again. It's that feeling of national pride that made the men and women of our military get up and do something about it, while we sit at home on our computers complaining about homework and questioning their values.
They're traveling the world. They're learning to be better citizens, getting the discipline we college students will never experience.
I'm not trying to change your political views. I don't expect you to go out and sign up for the Marines or join the National Guard. But I do hope you understand why soldiers would make that choice, and respect them for doing so.
Plus, chicks dig a man in uniform.