According to an opinion piece on Military.com written by Blake Stillwell two members of the House of Representatives have introduced a bipartisan non-binding resolution to make the phrase “Thank your for our freedom” become the official way to show appreciation to our countries veterans rather than the more natural, albeit still awkward, “Thank you for your service”.
The two Representatives are Republican Jack Bergman and Democrat J. Luis Correa. This resolution brings up an issue of how uncomfortable it can be to receive a thanks or praise for being a veteran and Blake’s not the first one to point that out.
In this video from WZDX News titled “Survey reveals many veterans uncomfortable being told ‘Thank you for your service’” we hear Cammie Bishop say “Nobody really joins the military to get personal thank yous. We join for our own personal reasons.”
This statement really hits home with me because my personal thought when someone says “Thank you” to me is with a sarcastic voice inside my head “yeah, I did it all for you” while I just smile and say to them “sure, yeah, thank you, uh no problem”
And that’s the weird tension that takes place. I want to appreciate their appreciation even if it’s impersonal because it’s a hell of a lot better than the treatment Vietnam Veterans received. Yet, at the same time, I didn’t do anything specifically for them and I had many of my own personal motivations for enlisting.
In my situation I joined for 3 primary reasons; to become a disciplined adult male who had a very minimal relationship with my father, to actually be a part of the fight against terrorism, and to get that college money. So, why would someone thank me for at least 2 of those 3 reasons? Long story short, I mostly joined for me and to better my life with a high risk, high reward mentality.
Blake’s article goes further into how the newly proposed resolution is a bit meaningless and even more awkward, I agree with his sentiment. I understand why people want to honor those who enter the service because it is something they couldn’t imagine themselves doing as, regardless of your reasons, the occupation absolutely comes with sacrifice.
At the same time let’s hope things never get too awkward like things do in this comedic take from GREGandLOU.
