Just how does one SUPPORT the troops?

We've all seen the blithering idiots, displaying their fake patriotism and waving their made in china flags and pronouncing that they "Support the Troops?"

How do they support the troops? Give them money? Go to their funerals? Ensure they get promoted if they live? I think that one who supports the troops could produce some viable, real, cogent item to show how they support troops. Care packages are great and homemade cookies are a treasure in the desert (been there done that)

No doubt I'm way off base here. Please share with me how "conservative" patriots in your area "support" the troops (and with what.)

but Roger Hedgecock has done a lot of things like having listeners donate stuff to put together "care packages". He gets local merchants to offer discounted or even free services to military family members. So he is one of the few who is actually doing something real.

On Edit: Here's a couple items from his website:

Many Ways to Help a Military Family
TOLL FREE 555-555-5555

Colleen, a military wife with a car donated by Roger's listeners and refurbished by Dan Smith of Alpine. Since Roger created his Warrior Family outreach after 911-01 we have provided free (donated and fixed up by our volunteer mechanics) cars to hundreds of San Diego military families. This doesn't count hundreds of cars that we've fixed for military families...mostly for free!! Thanks to a growing roster of San Diego auto dealers, tire shops, transmission service firms and driveway mechanics.

DONATE A SERVICEABLE CAR TO HOMEFRONT SAN DIEGO AND DEDUCT FULL MARKET VALUE

WE DO NOT AUCTION VEHICLES. WE MAKE SURE THEY ARE SAFE, WE RE-REGISTER THEM AND GIVE THE KEYS TO A MILITARY FAMILY WITHOUT TRANSPORTATION.

CALL 555-555-5555 TO DONATE A CAR, PLEASE!!

Donate Your Computer to a Military Family
DONATE YOUR COMPUTER TO A MILITARY family so they may stay in touch with their loved one while in Iraq! Thanks to Mike at Mike's Computer Rescue refurbishes your computer so that they can be given to a military family to stay in touch with their loved one. Mike's computer rescue is located at 6150 Lusk Blvd 00, SD 92121. Toll-free 1-555-555-5555 or online www.computerrescue.com

Plumbing for Military Families
"My Plumber" has stepped up to help our military families & supports Homefront SD. If you need a plumber call My Plumber @ 555-555-5555 & 1-555-555-5555. Visit their homepage www.plumber.com.

http://rogerhedgecock.com/content/blogcategory/15/71/

just a suggestion and a good cause

http://www.operationhelmet.org

groups of less than a dozen showing up at peace rallies and waving little flags and screaming their fury at being wrong and in a shrinking minority to those people on the right side of the issues, it might not be. Angry, nasty people they are, and spewing hate at other people is all they know to do.

There may be conservatives actively engaged in doing care packages for the troops, I can't rule that out. I hope there are, because soldiers who have been sent there for multiple tours even after serious wounds can use all the real support they can get.

It's really hard for me to stereotype people by their screwball ideas any more. I know people who go to a hateful Calvinist megachurch who firmly believe that if they honor those first 3/4 commandments they can dispense with the rest and still go to heaven who do great outreach work in northern Mexico, digging wells and building schools and the like. Hell, Frist goes to the third world to practice necessary medicine for free.

Their charity seems to stop in their own country, though. It may extend to troops no longer in it.

as seed money for this fund and he is a Republican.
http://www.thankmntroops.org/

It gives cash grants to Minnesotans who have served in combat zones.

other than myself, but I am an active participant in the Quilts of Valor Foundation (www.qovf.org). We make quilts which are sent to military hospitals. Some have gone directly to Afghanistan, others to Germany as well as stateside facilities. These colorful quilts do provide an emotional boost to wounded service men and women, letting them know that Americans do care about them. We support the warriors if not the war. To date, I have made 30 quilts and encouraged others to join the effort. After posting a message about QOVs here last year, a DU member whose husband is stationed at an Army base in Germany raised money to sponsor a quilt. Eventually, I was able to send six quilts to the base so they could take them on the hour journey to the nearest Army hospital. So maybe it's not a big deal, but offering comfort to one man or woman at a time works for me.

Quilts are a lot of work. Our knitting guild was making helmet liners last winter. I haven't been to a meeting in a while but it's probably time to get the needles out for another round for this coming winter.

Food Stamps to feed their children. Does that count?

And I don't kick puppies. /snark

I sent 2 two packages this week to: http://www.anysolider.com/

http://anysoldier.com/

http://www.treatsfortroops.com/

http://www.opgratitude.com/

http://www.treatanysoldier.com/

http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/

http://www.usocares.org/

http://www.packagesfromhome.org/

and support a soldier directly. I have two soldiers I met through anysoldier.com that I now correspond with regularly, and as often as I can afford it, send them things they need or cookies or magazines or books... whatever. These guys have no families here to help them out or lighten their loads, so I feel honored.

TC

more personal.

But doing away with state sponsored standing corporate armies under the thumb of any politician might help in some small way.

that a couple of guys from Texas figured out that even if I didn't support the war (they reckoned I didn't because they saw my Kerry button) I supported the troops by the way I was talking about them getting health care when they got back, esp. the National Guard. Same risk should get the same benefits.

I dunno how the Conservatives do it around here except with ribbons. During the election, those with sons and daughters in Iraq seemed to be on Kerry's side.

I've seen the "I support Pres Bush and the troops" and I always wish I had a button to put over it saying "Sorry, you'll have to pick one"

But a booth at last year's Fourth of July celebration had a setup so that people could write to the troops and donate for recreational supplies, but the way the person running it was talking was not necessarily Conservative. She emphasized that no matter what people thought of the war, we could all still agree on supporting the troops. I wondered how many conversations she'd had about that.

in conjunction with Gold Star Mothers. We signed up, were sent a supply of post cards, wrote a message on the back, and returned them to Gold Star Mothers. They were then included in packages sent to soldiers.

Ya know, just a little note from home saying we care about you. A small gesture of support.

I'm trying to remember who organized the drive (it was quite a while ago) but can't.

Implicit in both empty slogans is the assumption that there is a big segment of the population that doesn't support the troops or doesn't love the country. The idea that you could support individual troops and hope they come home safely, intact, and soon while opposing the imperial invasion they're participating in just doesn't compute for these folks. The idea that you can love your country even when its leadership has gone horribly, tragically, and fatally wrong also doesn’t make any sense to this crowd.