Monday, May 25, 2009

On service, and winning

Essay about service over at The End Time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Service" is when you do something to help someone out of the goodness of your heart, for no pay - as in "Community Service."

Those who work in the military do so because it is their chosen employment or career. Nothing wrong with saying, "thanks," but "service" is not the appropriate job. They are paid, and paid well, and we the taxpayers pay them.

It is more appropriate to thank them as an employer thanks an employee, "Thanks. Thanks for doing what you signed up for and are paid to do." Of course, what else should an employee do but what they are paid to do? If an employee doesn't do his/her job, that employee is fired.

Elizabeth Prata said...

So saying 'thanks for flipping that burger' is the same as saying to a trained Secret Service man who will take a bullet to protect our freedoms 'thanks for dying for our country'?

I find your notion heinous and disgusting.

And wrong, fortunately. Doing something for no pay out of the goodness of your heart is "volunteering."

Serving in the Armed Forces is the military service. It is one of the Protective service occupations. People who are in the armed forces are serving our country. And they deserve your thanks, at least on this one day, they certainly do not deserve your parsing and callous dismissal.