From Hollywood Hitman
"The point was that
I am not too sure you'll see too many soldiers, who yes occasionally make mistakes like the rest of the general population,
stealing money from the families of Veterans in the form of Poppy sales, which in addition to generating money, stand for something much greater than just you or me. " (Bolding mine)
And my point is that you won't find too many civilians stealing from them either which is what you implied when you stated that her actions were a "classic example of patriotism in Canada today." On one hand, you have a single person stealing the money, on the other hand you have the large number of civilians who filled those boxes by buying poppies and yet you chose to present the thief as being representative of the Canadian public.
"I'm appalled that someone would defend the actions of someone like this. "
Who's defending her actions?
"Simply put, someone who steals Poppy money is stealing money from and dishonoring the Veterans that fought to protect this country and our way of life. Thats patriotism? Hmmm....... "
Who said it was patriotism?
From Fast Eddy
"This remark seems to be loaded."
I'm not sure exactly by what you mean by loaded but there have been a number of posts by CF members concerned that a particular story or event will make everyone in the Forces look guilty by association. Take a look in threads where the Somalia incident is mentioned or the thread where the Van Doos drug bust is discussed. (
http://army.ca/forums/index.php/topic,16153.0.html) . I think that the transparency with which the matter was handled went a long way to maintaining the reputation of the regiment and Jungle's comments, as a senior NCO of the regiment, reinforced my opinion. The posts suggesting it should have been covered up were disturbing but definately in the minority.
I understand the concern about how perspection can be shaped by the bad actions of a few (especially in an organization where conformity is encouraged.)I'd like to see that go both ways though. Many times (note, not always but quite often) if something about a civilian ticks off a CF member they then extend that to all civilians. Apparently we are sheeple and lemmings because we all voted for Paul Martin, (despite the fact that he had a minority win in a four party system) We all define ourselves as Not American. We are all Anti American (especially those of us in Ontario) The majority of us call soldiers baby killers while we also can't accept that Canadian soldiers might actually kill people. We're all to busy enjoying our rights and freedoms to pay attention to our soldiers. We think everyone loves us. Canada is an incredibly diverse country for the size of our population, we're extremely regionalized, we use two official languages plus a plethora of others languages and yet when one of us is found to be lacking, we're like peas in a pod.
And Bossi, you're right on the mark!
