Friday

Support Your Local Serviceman

Ok, that’s a generic term. Support your local military member, gender not withstanding. You can be very much against this war, and still support the troops. It’s not a mutually exclusive thing; there’s a big difference between supporting the cause and supporting the people.

And whether you agree with invading Iraq or not, you’ve got to agree: we have tons of our military overseas, and—to use the standard phrase—in harm’s way. They aren’t tools of the government, they aren’t mindless drones, they aren’t extensions of the Presidential Penis. They’re people, U.S citizens, and many of them are very, very young. They deserve support.

It doesn’t take much effort on your part to help them out. Getting online and sending electronic rah-rahs is nice, but needed just as much are the little things that bring home to them. Things you might not think matter to soldiers and airmen sitting there in the sand. Care packages are a much wanted thing, and you can get these to our military via the Red Cross.

Things that go well in a military care package:

  • Sunscreen

  • Hard candy (individually wrapped)

  • Cookies, chips, microwave popcorn (nothing homemade)

  • Sweetened Kool Aid powder, Gatorade powder

  • Jigsaw puzzles, card games, board games

  • Footballs, Frisbees

  • Paperback books (go for the new ones, not the really old ones; best sellers, scifi, mystery, action, etc.)



Things you should not put in a care package:

  • Anything that has photos showing skin—if it can’t be covered by a t-shirt and long pants, it’s not something they can have. This includes muscle magazines, fitness magazines, cards, and photos

  • pork products

  • chocolate (this time of year it’ll melt)

  • Religious materials; this includes greeting cards that have bible quotes on or in them

  • Letters (unless written by a child)



You can take a care package (leave the box unsealed) to your local Red Cross, along with appropriate postage (for a 18 x 12 x 10 in box, that’s about $15.00) and they’ll get it to deployed service members.

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