I wanted to take some time off of reading and writing stories of our Cheeto-hair-colored leader embarrassing himself and our nation as we approach the anniversary of our country declaring independence from Britain to touch on something that has been irking me ever since after September 11, 2001 but especially lately. I suppose it was from me flipping around my remote control last night trying to find something to watch on TV, but NBC was showing a NASCAR race from Daytona last night, and as usual in the pre-race starting events the announcers in the stadium and frankly even the TV announcers went out of their way to honor (deservedly) our military members serving overseas and in dangerous places such as the Middle East and Afghanistan who are proudly protecting our freedoms. Now I have much love for our military; my brother served in the Army, and I had a friend who served in the National Guard and was stationed in Kuwait during the second Iraq war. But i’ve been having issues with the media lavishing so much praise for our military during what are considered to be trivial events like athletic competitions, beauty pageants, award shows, etc. I think people forget our military are soldiers, and one of their main objectives is to eliminate threats from hostile foreigners up to and including killing said threats. That’s not to say that these actions aren’t necessary; they obviously were needed to win World Wars I and II and they were needed to eliminate Osama Bin Laden and members of Al Qaeda and ISIL. But to truly protect our nation from outside threats, we need to win hearts and minds, and one of the groups who have dedicated their lives to doing such without any fanfare are the Peace Corps.
Sure, it’s not in vogue or even popular to acknowledge the work our Peace Corps volunteers have done and are doing to stop the spread of diseases we don’t even have to suffer because of our advanced health efforts, or how they are teaching children (including girls) in developing nations how to read, or alleviating famine in arid nations, or helping refugees in war-plagued nations like Iraq, Syria or those fleeing vicious drug cartels in Central America, but it has been their efforts that help stop citizens from those developing nations from turning to brutal dictators, narco-terrorists, and radical extremist groups like the Taliban, ISIL, Boko Haram, and others. By serving selflessly for others, they bringing much hope for the impoverished, and we should be giving them as much love for serving and protecting our nation as we are to our active military members.
So as you gather around for picnics, parades, and fireworks this 4th of July, let’s remember our American heroes in the Peace Corps who are also serving and protecting our nation from hostile threats before they even happen.