The video’s music is scary in itself. It just gives me the creeps. I felt the same way before I went to Iraq and after I came home from Iraq. We were not allowed to have our magazines loaded in our weapons while in Iraq at certain times. We all had these cases on the butt stock of our weapons with some sort of slogan. My slogan was 9-11 you are not forgotten. Everyone had to believe in a cause while we were there. That was my cause. It may have been a wrong one but that is the cause that I believed I was fighting for. Does it sound like revenge?Yes, it does. That was the something to pull us through. I don’t know if I believe in the eye for an eye quote or not. Sometimes I think I do when it comes to rapists and child molesters and even murders. When you do go into there country as a soldier you are told watch your back, always be aware of your surroundings, pay attention to key words (we were taught). In some cases this may be so and in other cases they are just human beings trying to live their lives but who are caught up in the war whether they want to be or not. Some are for it and some are against it. Some hate you and some love you. I guess it is the luck of the draw and who you run into. In this video you see a lot of violence but what about some of the good things done. I mean the bad may out weigh the good but it is not all about the bad. There are a lot of things left out by the media and it is usually the good, the good stuff don’t give them the ratings. The media kicks our ass in every war. Terrorists are everywhere, we do not know who they are. They are here and they are there and they want it that way. They are watching people live their everyday routine lives and wondering when to hurt. I do not believe this makes me Scits-zo it makes me aware.

I agree with her, everyone has a fear of dying or the fear of the unknown, I don‘t care what people say. I can’t say I am ok with dying and I can’t say I am not ok with dying---it is the unknown. My fear is not being able to see my children again. The one side she did make a point about was a quote from her grandmother. The fear of losing the I in me. That happens with every soldier out there. We all have a boss and we have to follow orders. It might not be what we want to do but do we have a choice. We signed the line, we took our choice away by doing that. It broke my heart to see some of the people when we were in there country but at the same time you honestly did not know who you could and who you couldn’t turn your back one. When you are in a war and even with the aftermaths you lose that peace that you once had. I pray that the future generations of our country and their country can come to some kind of compromise because the way things are going now we won’t get that done with the leaders we have.

I had to watch this clip over and over. I took it personal, it upset me. She is asking that people see war from all sides, listening to her speak I do not believe she is doing that. Being woke in the day/night after working cause of being hit with mortars. Praying to GOD that it is not someone you love that got hit. I can relate, but see hear is the other side, I am a soldier. We had the same fears day in and day out while in Iraq. NO we may not actually have our blood families over there with us but we do feel the same way about our brother and sister soldiers as she does her family. When you trust someone with your life, does that not feel like they are apart of your family. I know I feel that way about my soldiers. I tried to feel some empathy with her. I tried to imagine what it is like in her shoes. If there is two sides to a war why is she only talking about one. I do believe she is a casualty of war. I believe everyone of us involved in a war is to a point a casualty of war. It just depends on how you are built. Can you handle it or not. The people of that country did not ask for the war to happen just like we as soldiers did not want to have to go to war. She states she has a organization Women for Women International. I think she may be more of a woman liberal than anything else. I think she needs to have these moving documentaries in front of the leadership of her country and maybe even the women in her country to get more women on her side. As long as the women in her country continue to all the poor treatment against them it will not stop. I think she has the voice to change that. She is a very moving speaker but I think she needs to switch up her strategy and actually look at the war from all sides. Being a soldier and a female with PTSD who fought in the war I wonder if I would be allowed to join the organization. I do not feel they would see me the same as others.

It wasn’t just me I had to get ready it was also two girls. My husband and I are two different people. He is more of a scheduled person. I am more of a wing it type. I know it makes no sense with me being in the military but I think that’s why I am the way I am. I hate the precise scheduling of the military and it is usually never right anyway.
Active Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard we are supposed to be all same but it really is not like that at all. From what a lot of us Guardsmen see Big Army looks down on us because we are only AKA “weekend warriors“. I have heard this one too many times. Active Army is training every day on war-time scenarios. National Guard trains one weekend a month and two weeks out of the summer. We also have other duties that have to be accomplished. They say that they do not want training to be time constraint. Its just not possible. You have to have ample time to get the correct and proper training. Active Army is working with the same people day and day out. They are building a bond with each other every day. The kind of bond that when your together your back is covered you don’t have any worries. We have one weekend a month and two weeks out of the summer to accomplish this. I am not saying that I do not have this bond with my fellow soldiers but understand I have 17 years in the Army vs. someone who just joined, does their training and than comes back to get deployed with other soldiers he/she barely knows. We don’t know this soldier, we do not know how he/she operates, what are his/her strengths and weaknesses. These are important characteristics to know of someone when you are going off to fight in a war with them. Lives are on the line. We do not get the same equipment Active Duty gets. We get hand me downs from Active Duty. When we see it, it is old news to them. The only time we get new gear is when we are being deployed and you have little time to train up on how it works.
I believe there is more soldiers out there with PTSD and depression than what is being reported. The shit you see over there is just hard to get over. Soldiers are not robots we are all built differently. I’ve seen soldiers that can’t help show emotion and ones that it doesn’t matter what happens it just doesn’t get to them. I have 17 years of service and this was my first deployment, some soldiers on active duty with only three years of service have been deployed like two - three times. Have you ever heard of the saying “Practice makes Perfect.” I hope that is not the case for me.

So much of that video hits home with me. I can seriously relate. The picture of the soldier crying breaks my heart. I know the feeling. I am not a drunk but I have a lot of anger. I have no fear right now and it scares me. I don’t think of the consequences of my actions. I have not hurt anyone but the rage that I have is un-explainable. When I left my older daughter was eight and my baby was nine months. When I came back my oldest daughter was 9 ½ and so mad at me for leaving her, my baby did not know me. It probably took her 4-5 months to get used to me again. Broke my heart all I wanted to do when I got home was hold my baby and rock her. I felt as if I was throwing a wrench into everyone’s life. I just felt left out and that I did not belong anywhere. I did not want bothered by anybody at times and other times I couldn’t get enough of the people I love. Almost like I had a fear they would leave me. When I was in Iraq I only had to worry about me. When I came home I had to re-adjust again to a old but new way of life.

I heard him say be careful who you say that to son. Why do they have to be careful. They can not help who they love. It is just not fair. They are human beings and just because they do not do what is expected of them in society they are looked down upon. I feel sorry for these people. They have to feel alone at times and uncomfortable about the way people make them feel. Like there is something wrong with them. I have several gay friends and than again I have another friend who knows he is gay and has told me he is gay but he feels it is just wrong to be this way. He is lying to his wife and his son not to mention his self, only because he thinks their lives would be miserable if he came out of the closet. He is so worried about what other people think including GOD. He has literally shunned his own thoughts and feelings because he thinks he is wrong. I think it is unfortunate for him that he feels that he does not have people in his life to accept him for the way he is. Deep down I think his wife and maybe his son know but they will not lead on that they do. Maybe that is all the inclination to coming out that he needs. What is this telling him, that he is a terrible person for feeling this way. I know all of this because he told me. I suspected it and questioned it not because I was being nosey but because my husband was involved. He feel for my husband and thought my husband felt the same for him. Their friendship went on for a couple of years, I could see it. I seen how he looked at my husband. He would let his life and family go because he would rather have been hanging out with my husband. The friendship ended because he made a move on my husband and my husband turned him down. He than basically shunned him and said the friendship was over. Was this fair of my husband, I do not know for sure. What is the correct action in replying to unwanted behavior. I think reaction of my husband tells the friend that he was right and that he is wrong for being this way. I still feel sorry for the friend because I do not believe he is living his life the way he wants to and I think he feels all alone. He says he is really happy but how can he be. Would you?

This whole don’t ask don’t tell issue has had me outraged for a while now. Darren Manzella who was is a two time veteran of Iraq. They apparently did not have a problem with him before they found out he was gay from his first deployment. So how did he coming out affect any of his capabilities of being a soldier? I bet it did not. If it did why was he sent to Iraq, a second time? He has all ready proven that he is good enough. There is a reason that he had the rank on his hat in the video. You don’t become a NCO without knowing what you are doing.
13,000 soldiers discharged with the Don’t Ask Don’t tell regulation. It is discrimination. What happened to Equal Opportunity laws? These are United States soldiers who have defended our freedom; first and foremost they are human beings. They should have the same rights as any other human beings.
The thing is no soldier in uniform is allowed to fraternize with another soldier in uniform, so it should have never been a factor on the job. I know it happens, but so what. If it was a guy and girl doing these actions, would they throw them out? Hell no, they may only get counseled. You talk about a double standard. What is the government telling these soldiers who are fighting for our country, you go and fight in this war for our country but in return we will not fight for you because you are gay? In-justice!!!
I am in a unit in the Army and there are gays and in no way shape or form does them being gay affect the morale of our unit. The thing is we don’t really care. We respect and love them for who they are, not what they are. We fought in battle with these people, what makes the government think that them being gay is going to change our minds about them. The government needs to come out of the damn closet with their narrow minds and get with what is really going on. These officials sit in their comfortable, re-clinable office chairs and come up with these stupid policies with out talking to the real people that matter. You know the ones that are fighting in the war for this country so you are able to come up with those stupid policies.

Zach is one of the fortunate kids who did not get picked on because his parents were gay. In smaller areas like where I live it is not like that. You are either ok with it or you are not. I believe when you love someone you love everything about them because that is a part of them. I know of a great female friend that decided she would rather be with women. She had a son who was 12 years old from her previous marriage. She constantly worried about him and the torment he would endure because of her being gay. I told her all she could do was be honest with him and not hide things from him to try and protect him. She had been right though the kids in school would say mean things to him about his mom being a lesbian. The son lived with his mom for a year or so and than moved in with his father because he could not handle being tormented by other kids in school. This ripped her apart inside but to her it did not matter, it was all about life being easier on her son. She did not feel her choices should have been taken out on him. In our society in this small area people do not except gay people.The son running away was not really the right answer to the situation but, he thought it would appease people if lived with his dad because he thought people would think he was not ok with his mom being gay. Even though he honestly did not have a problem with his mom having a girlfriend. The torment eventually eased up. When the son was like 15 or 16 he moved back in with his mom and her girlfriend. He had made up his mind on his own it really didn’t matter what other people thought. He said he really just missed his mom and he said you can’t help who you love and some people in our area were not big enough to see that. I agree with him 100%. I thought him to be very mature for him being about to make this judgment on his own. Whether gay or not these people are still human beings and they have every right to live on this earth with the same rules and laws that a straight couple would. This is out-right discrimination, in any you look at it. What makes the government think that gay people can not love or live the way straight people do? The only difference between gay and straight is some gender parts. Being “gay” in this country is just like being black balled in this country. Just leave them the hell alone and let them live their lives and if they want to get married and have babies---let them. It is their right as human beings. Government, society needs to stop being narrow minded and realize that every one has the right to live the way they want to without their approval.

I agree that this word is just as bad as the n-word, f-word or anything else. The thing about it is when people use it I don’t think they are trying to hurt anyone’s feelings with it they are using it just as an expression or as the common day English language. It’s one of those words we use just because it is out there with no real inclination of the harm it causes. Why would we though, we really don’t know how it feels because we do not really take the time to associate ourselves with someone who may have down syndrome or another kind of mental condition to actually see the ramifications of the word. I included. I think it needs to be world wide education on how it makes some people feel. What gets me is I’m am constantly chastising my ten year old for using this word. She doesn’t understand why she can not use it. I tell her that word is a derogatory comment against people with a mental condition and that if they would hear her saying it, it would deeply hurt her feelings. She says well I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings by it. The education is not just for adults but should be for the young too. I asked her would you use the N-word in public she said NO way. I asked why. She said that is known to be used against people of color. (She obviously didn’t say it like that). It is just a mean word that does not need to be said cause it hurts peoples feelings. I told her than she needs to think of the R-word the same way. She may not see a lot of people with a mental condition but it does not make it right to just say it like it is a common word. I told her she needs to think of it as a swear word so she will not say it. This may be some kind of censorship but really who is it going to hurt to ban this word. I don’t think it will hurt anyone I think it will help people.

As a parent I don’t think telling your children to not talk to strangers is a bad idea. In this video the little man was just walking down the street with his nanny and someone still tried to grab him. I know what it is like to take your eye off of your kid for a second and the kid makes a dash for it. It was not to long ago that I heard on the radio that in Seattle, a female and a friend went to a department store. One of the females had her two yr old daughter with her. They were checking out something in the store and looked down and the little girl was gone. Panic set in and searched the areas around them and the little girl was not around. They ended up locking the store down. One of the employees heard screaming in the back of the store. It was in the back where they unloaded trucks. There was a man, he had ripped the babies diaper off and was trying to rape the two yr. old. WTF. This was in a public place!!! Yes, this may have been another random incident. This can happen to anyone. There are sicko’s everywhere. Our job as parents is to do whatever is in our power to protect our children. I will not ever think it is ok for my kids to talk to strangers. In the event my kid would get lost, I would hope that he/she could ask for help from someone. With that being said it still scares the shit out of me. Parents need to educate their children as soon as possible. As soon as they begin to walk or are able to take off in a split second. In the event that they would become lost I would hope that they would be able to find someone kind to help them. As a child they don’t know by the looks of someone if they are good or bad. Hell, adults don't even know that. This is a very scary subject to think about. I honestly think that I need more education on the issue because it is so frightening to me.