<p>You won’t recommend it because of one thread where an intellectual discussion is going on? Who cries over words? Wow… The valectorian at my school was rejected everywhere except UCLA. Why? Nobody likes nerds and kids with perfect gpa’s and sats… Case closed.</p>
<p>Whats the first amendment of the constitution?</p>
<p>Let me just tell you that I changed my earlier post because I felt you were being sarcastic and blaming me for saying that it was you that started everything. I got riled up, since I attempted to be diplomatic, hence the so called “hateful comments.” However looking back it seems I may have misjudged your comments and so I’d like to extend an apology. Please stay.</p>
<p>Smurfie-
The whole point is, there is no need to attack. If one is going to call people names, one might expect that it will come back at them, in public or private posts. One can share their opinion without being quite so harsh. Diplomacy usually works better when there are differeing opinions on sensitive subjects. But, yes, coming down on a HS student because you are in college was… well… funny.</p>
<p>And I’ve apologized to that person countless times to only recieve hate PMs.</p>
<p>I guess you didn’t know that.</p>
<p>ni-
I said you were right and I was trying to defend the OP, but I got carried away. For that: I’m sorry to everyone including the OP. </p>
<p>Let’s ignore the immature posters and move on.</p>
<p>I feel so bad for the OP right now, you don’t even know.</p>
<p>AHAHAHAH dontgiveup… it seemed u gave up in high school queer.</p>
<p>your sayign illegal immigrants love this country? LOLOLOL they spit on it. they only come here to feed their families back home.</p>
<p>of course i’m a business owner… i take full advantage of what this nation offers- OPPURTUNITY. and if your just going to join the military because of financial reasons… then you don’t deserve to defend this nation.</p>
<p>Prince Charles/Tillman=true hero’s ( he’s rich already doesn’t need money) his motives and reasons for fighting are much greater than yours will ever be. This is what distinguishes a true soldier from a fake one.</p>
<p>SERUOS SON! YEE MAN YEEEEEEE!</p>
<p>if your parents cared, you would be in a JC right now. I know some moms that are prostitiutes that are sending their children to a junior college.</p>
<p>"These kids are walking to school in constant danger of getting kidnapped, raped, incapacitated, and blown-up, all in succession. My treatment seems like a poorly executed wedgie compared to the hell these kids been through. Crying and whining about your rejection letter from Yale and Stanford? These kids would give their right arms (some have already did) to just attend a normal high school. "</p>
<p>ONE WORD: “VOLUNTEERED”</p>
<p>with all due respect to those who are trying to calm this down, please read the whole thread before singling out smurf!</p>
<p>smurf and dontgiveup–better to take the high road and let <strong>others</strong> hang themselves with their own rope, so to speak</p>
<p>I’d like to hear more from others such as stecson and the OP who have served in the military and are now in or hope to be in college.</p>
<p>but maybe that won’t be possible here
sad</p>
<p>maybe we should re-institute the draft??!!</p>
<p>Ya know, this thread is currently listed on the front page of the forum as one of the “featured discussions”, but if this silliness keeps up, it is likely to be closed or even perhaps deleted. Chill on the name calling, everyone.</p>
<p>Don’tGiveUp: Whatever anybody says on this post, and however ridiculous the statements are that they make, you should just know that your post affected a lot of people in a really good way.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’ve learned a lot by all the posts here. First, there was yours. I didn’t read it as a sympathy post. I think you were just trying to bring perspective. I don’t think you brought politics into it.</p>
<p>I love my country. I hate the war we are fighting I have always been against it, and I am no pacifist. I just thought it was a war we didn’t need to fight. Whatever your views are on this, I still value you and soldiers that volunteer to make, potentially, the sacrifice of your lives to protect our freedoms. I don’t view the fight in Iraq as trying to protect our freedoms. I think the effort was misguided. This says nothing about my patriotism or appreciation for the efforts you make.</p>
<p>I think a lot of posters misunderstood what you were talking about. This causes me some concern regarding their ability to read (seriously). It also makes me ask some questions about their humanity. Where did G’stein get, for instance, that you were writing a sympathy post?</p>
<p>I would think anyone who has ever had to fend for themselves or who has seen the suffering of poor or embattled people outside the US would have had at least some empathy for what you were saying. And understand the message. And not overwrite it with their own agendas.</p>
<p>I am dumbfounded that your post has brought on so much bile and stupidity from the likes of Firebird.</p>
<p>I would hope that a majority of people on CC understood what you were expressing. Certainly many of them have said so here. And certainly I do.</p>
<p>As you said, quoting Bill Gates, there are many ways to get to heaven. Here’s hoping you get there after what you’ve seen and been through. Good luck. And thanks again for your persepective. It was very memorable.</p>
<p>I think that America’s soldiers are WHY those Iraqi kids are in such bad shape.</p>
<p>They VOLUNTEERED to go and destroy that nation and kill people.</p>
<p>I will hear no complaints from those in the army that think we should feel bad for them. They signed up for this. They could have just as easily chosen a different life. America gives us the opportunity to make money and survive in countless different ways. </p>
<p>And as for those Iraqi children? They were far better off before the US came in and killed anywhere from 40,000 to 600,000 Iraqi citizens (estimates vary greatly). </p>
<p>On a different level, I pity the soldiers for becomming instruments of American foriegn policy. Few of the battles we involve ourselves in our legitamate these days, and only one (Afghanistan) has (had) ANYTHING to do with American security.</p>
<p>Post 187 reminded me of the A Million Little Pieces fallout on TV.</p>
<p>Even if this whole post was fake, the post is still inspiring. I don’t think it’s just an April Fools joke though cus it wouldn’t be that funny.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have actively protested this war from before we went into it. Where I differ is blaming the soldiers. There are a lot of reasons people volunteer to be in the army. Some do it because of blind patriotism, some out of financial need, others simply perceive they lack options, and some perhaps naively think that they can avoid going to war. Some who went in for reasons of blind patriotism have been disillusioned.</p>
<p>IMO, you should focus on what the posters message was. And leave it at that. </p>
<p>As far as your points, yes, many of the Iraqi children were indeed far better off before we went there and deposed Saddam. At this point, it is other Iraqis they are right to fear most. And that is a good reason for us to leave as quickly as possible: it’s civil war now and innocents are just pawns.</p>
<p>It is American foreign policy and its current drafters that your complaints are best directed against. But don’t confuse that with concern for the troops. Otherwise, you are doing exactly what it is that I find despicable in the pro-war rhetoric: equating support for the troops as support for the war and equating opposition to the war as betrayal of our troops. </p>
<p>It simply shouldn’t be that way: because I am a patriot, I am avidly against this war. Because I support the troops, I am against this war. Because it’s been counter to our security interests, I am against this war.</p>
<p>I have deleted several posts that were flames or referred to posts that I deleted for terms of service violations. I would like to continue to keep this thread alive particularly since it reflects an unusual viewpoint and is a featured post. However, for it to remain open, posters will have to adhere to our terms of service which means not using profanity of any kind (including spelled around) and not making personal attacks. It’s fine to disagree with other posters, but don’t make negative statements about their characters.</p>
<p>TO the OP, am I supposed to feel better after hearing your story?:rolleyes: I knew that there was a lot of suffering in the world and that the American military was going through a LOT of hardships in Iraq long before I found out what my college decisions were</p>
<p>If anything, you make me feel guilty, as if I’m wrong to feel bad that I got rejected from some of my top-choice colleges. Why is that the elders in our society feel compelled constantly to present disproportianate tales of grief in order to put things into “perspective” for the younger generation? Although I know your intention was not to draw sympathy from the members of CC, you certainly came across as being patronizing to high school seniors(wow why is that kid crying about being rejected to Harvard even though that was his dream school when I almost had a near-death experience with an improvised explosive device once) and perhaps even disparaged your fellow comrades still fighting on the streets of Najaf, Fallujah, Baghdad, etc. by comparing your terrible ordeal to something as trivial as college admissions.</p>
<p>That being said, I do appreciate all the sacrifices and the rest of the American military have made for our country and especially your obvious heroism in a time of great adversity.:)</p>
<p>Huh.</p>
<p>DontGiveUp…while other people seemed to have missed your point by about three frillion miles…I got it. Everyone on this board is EXTREMELY lucky to even be thinking about college. Instead of thinking about what we don’t have, we should celebrate what we do have. (I totally include myself in this, as I’ve been sitting on this Yale rejection a little too hard)</p>
<p>And bonjour, ignorance. Re: The whole “blame the soldiers for fighting the war” argument is a little ridiculous. It’s not just kids in Iraq that have less than us. I think it’s a safe assumption that most of the people on this board have not had to face the option of joining the army. Get yourself out of your narrow socioeconomic mindset and consider someone else’s perspective.</p>
<p>For the record, I’m a flaming liberal who is completely anti-Iraq.</p>
<p>anti-iraq means your anti liberation… you anti freedom and your anti democracy. Your “anti-heaven” LOLOL. I think it was good to take out a ruthless dictator who mass slaughtered millions of iraq’s. </p>
<p>i could be wrong though : /</p>
<p>DontGiveUp, wow, all I can say is that God truly brought you through a lot and has protected you from a lot of harm. Praise God for protecting you! Thanks for sharing your insight on how we shouldn’t take life for granted, that we shouldn’t boast about tomorrow. However, I do not agree with the quote you ended with, about how there are many ways to heaven. There is only one way. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”</p>
<p>Society tells us all these different ways a person can get to heaven, but Jesus, the Son of God Himself said that no one can come to the Father (who is in heaven) except through Jesus. </p>
<p>Because of the sins we’ve committed, we’ve broken God’s law and thus we deserve eternal punishment for our sins, but God loved us so much that He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins, doing good works can’t earn your way into heaven, nor can being a “good” person because no one is good except God alone.</p>
<p>"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).</p>