Friday, December 23, 2011

Soldier pawns Purple Heart to pay bills.

A soldier on leave from Afghanistan has bills. More bills than he has money to pay them.

Kind of like Congress.

Except unlike the overwhelming majority of cowards in Congress, the Senate and the White House, this man has the guts to lace up a pair of combat boots and place himself in harm's way for his country.

He comes home for the holidays and has to pay bills. That lavish salary the military pays him only goes so far. So he pawns one of his Purple Hearts to help meet his obligations, because meeting obligations is part of being a soldier. Dodging obligations is part of being a politician.

And so now his decoration, awarded to him for being wounded in the line of duty and service to his nation, sits in a pawn shop. The owner has been inundated with offers to help this young man.

Read the story.

First off, I'm glad the owner of the pawn shop stated he has no intention of selling the vet's medal, and instead has it tucked away for whenever the veteran repays the loan.

However, not sure the veteran may be able to scrap up the money to ever repay the loan.

Our commander-in-chief just finished berating Congress, and the nation, for not hurrying up and passing his fraud of a "payroll tax cut extension" and even went so far as to solicit hard-luck "What the extra $40 means to me" stories from around the blue states.

Then he takes off for a four-million dollar vacation to Hawaii, and a soldier has to pawn his Purple Heart in order to make ends meet--for bills accrued while he was away fighting and bleeding for freedom.

The CEO of Walgreens received a 36% salary increase, plus another huge stock options bonus while the employees, according to shareholder information received on average throughout the company, less than a 1.3% raise, while their healthcare benefits package costs increased over 10% and deductibles doubled and tripled.

Two weeks ago, this same CEO sent out an internal memo to his field vice presidents that he wants 25% increased production from all employees. What an asshole.

Reminds me of when our president berated us, Americans, for being "lazy." Another asshole.

Something is very wrong in this country right now. Very wrong.

It's wrong because we, as a nation of sheep, continue to put up with it.

Wounded soldiers pawning medals born of their own blood to pay bills. CEOs pushing for exorbitant raises and bonuses, earned straight from the wallets of their employees.

Something is very wrong.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Things are screwed up for sure.

Old NFO said...

That is truly sad...