Dear Doug, you make me mad.

Dear Doug,

I watched "League of Grateful Sons" this morning.  On one hand, I commend you for applauding the heros of World War 2 and Iwo Jima in particular.  On the other hand, I really dislike you using these brave, heroic men as propaganda tools.  You are not worthy to tie their shoes, much less make a "documentary" about them.

#1) WW2 was not an epic battle of Christendom vs. statism, which you assert.  We did not go to war with Japan because their little sons were "taken away from moms and dads and being raised by the state."  However, when the only "historians" you interview are yourself and Matt Chancey, I don't know why I expected historical accuracy.

#2) The men of WW2 were not fighting so they could preserve the "historic Christian family" where Daddy works 9-5 and Mommy stays home and bakes cookies.  How dare you even assert this, considering that WW2 saw the largest influx of women in the workplace in history.  If you did any valid historical research at all, you would know that many of those woman did not want to leave the workplace to be stay at home wives, and it was a large factor in the women's rights movement.

#3) Stop talking about manhood, courage, valor and perserverance like you know what those words mean.  You are clueless.  Courage, valor, honor, sacrifice, perserverance...those aren't baby names, Doug.  Those are attributes that many men--and women--I know posess.  Taking your two sons to Iwo Jima to meet veterans of that battle is a good learning experience.  It doesn't mean you are on some great research expedition or have suddenly been imbibed with courage and valor.  It means you took your kids on an expensive field trip to meet great men. 

Do you want to meet real heros, Doug?  I'm a paramedic.  A few years ago, on the coldest night of the year with -20 wind chill, I got called out in the early morning hours for an elderly man, a cancer patient, having trouble breathing.  His yard had at least 3 feet of snow in it, his sidewalks and driveway hadn't been shoveled since he was unable to do it, and we had to call the fire department just to help us carry the stretcher through the snow, since it wouldn't roll and had to be picked up and carried several hundred feet to the waiting ambulance.  Several members of the local volunteer fire department showed up in the bone chilling wind and cold, and we carried that man to the waiting ambulance.  While I was giving him a breathing treatment and starting an IV, I looked out the back windows of the ambulance.  And there were the men and women of the fire department, who didn't know this man or his wife at all, out in the driveway and sidewalk with shovels.  In that freezing cold, they were shoveling this man's property so his wife wouldn't have to worry about it.  It took them a good 30 minutes between the six of them, and they all had to go home and warm up and go to their paying jobs yet that day.   They were missing sleep and the comforts of home to stay longer and hand shovel that driveway and sidewalk.  Nobody asked them to.  It wasn't part of their job description.  They weren't receiving any compensation.

They did it because it was the right thing to do.

That is honor, Doug.  That is valor.  That is sacrifice. 
That is what I want my son to be.

I don't want him to grow up and be like you.  Or Matt Chancey.  I want him to know true courage, and true honor, and true valor.  I want him to do the right thing, even when it's cold and uncomfortable and he's tired.  I want him to be a man who will get out of his nice warm bed in the middle of a freezing winter night to help someone else out, and expect nothing in return.

Until you have any clue about real life courage, please stop talking about it like you know what those words mean.

Thank you.

Signed,

A college degreed woman who does not stay at home with her children, but will go into your burning house to save yours.