So I was having a discussion with some fellow military spouses about the recent on goings of government and military COLA and retirement. We all came to that conclusion that general public doesn't really care about what happens to the military. So a thought...
If Walmart started closing down, making cuts, downsizing if you will..people would be screaming from the roof tops. It would make National News, quicker than anything. What if I told you that was happening to the military. Our commissaries and exchanges, most of them are located on bases, which provide us our groceries and the other things you can buy at Walmart, are shutting down. Commissaries are essential to base living, as there are times when you can't get off base to shop or you are in a foreign country and getting food from the local economy isn't in the cards. Exchanges are the same thing. Its not just a "privilege" to shop there, most times its our only way to buy the things we need to live on. So when they start closing them down, most times that effects the whole base. So just imagine if Walmart no longer existed and how angry people would be.
But wait there is more..
I am willing to bet people don't know that some of our clinics and hospitals are closing as well. Again if Kaiser Permanente or some other big medical group decided to close clinics or even hospitals, it would, one be on National News and two, people would be rightly angry about it. Jobs lost, medical services not being provided to the masses. So how do you think the military feels when their clinics and hospitals start closing down. Medical services not being taken care for the people that are asked to go and fight for this country? But yet its ok. The military can take it, right?
It is true that we are a hearty bunch. We tend to pull up our socks, carry on despite what is getting thrown at us. But it begs the question of, when are people going to stop, pay attention to the cries and outrage of the military and it's families at Government cuts to our services and retirements. Is it going to be when those cuts finally effect the general public? Because it will happen. Its called the draft. When you have low numbers at the recruitment offices and you don't have enough people who want to join, the draft will be put in place. Is that when we are going to hear your voice of dismay? When your children are getting shipped off to War and there is nothing you can do?
So why is it that if something like Walmart or Kaiser Permanente closing will light a fire in people to call to arms, but yet when the same thing happens to the military everyone stays silent?
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