Surprising Stuff

Is Wisconsin a patriotic state?
One would certainly think so to listen to the rhetoric of the state’s officials, especially those charged with arranging for the celebrations of Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. But is that reality or merely lipstick on a pig? Take the Purple Heart License Plate.

Every state has a special plate for Purple Heart (combat wounded) veterans. Several have rules allowing for lifetime free plates, like New Mexico and West Virginia. Wisconsin has a Purple Heart plate, but the veterans with that decoration and designation must pay extra for it, as if it were a vanity plate. How do the citizens of Wisconsin feel about their own Purple Heart veterans being treated as if their wounds are vanity-related? If actions are indicative of such feelings, then the answer is very evident. To get any other Wisconsin benefits, a Wisconsin veteran must prove that he or she entered the military in Wisconsin and then got out of the military in Wisconsin, and maintains constant residency in Wisconsin.

What is the likelihood of that in this day and age? Just about none, as one must assume it was sort of non-deliberately intended. Maybe the biggest benefit Wisconsin affords its’ military veterans is that of having them be invited to schools, clubs and parades to be honored (fleetingly felt sorry for). Wave when you see these veterans, although you won’t see many because most of these toughened, but sensitive, men will not come out for such demonstrations of whatever that is. They only come out if you need help or someone to fight for you. Most citizens of America are not veterans of the military, much less combat veterans.

So, many feel like this man who approached a combat veteran in a Lake Geneva coffee shop recently. His question put to the veteran was pertinent and telling: “Don’t you feel that the people who didn’t go into that nightmare of a war were the smart ones?” Although the veteran was heard to quietly agree with the man asking the question, the expression left on the veteran’s face was very difficult to read.