It’s about choice and respect.

There is nothing I hate more than labels, even though I know sometimes they are necessary.  But labels can be so limiting in someone’s perception of you, or your own perception of yourself.  I hate being put in a box because of what someone labels me.  Just because someone labels you as something doesn’t mean that that is all that you are, or that you are just like everyone else with the same label. 

I have noticed lately on social networking sites a trend among a lot of the military supporters out there, the idea that everyone who avidly supports the troops must be a Christian conservative Republican.  That label couldn’t fit me less!  I don’t like being told what I must be, what I must believe, what I must think, just because I am an Army wife, an Army vet and I support our troops.  I read some of the tweets/statuses they put out there and the condescending tone of them against anyone who doesn’t fit their definition of what a true military supporter is about just annoys me.  It isn’t about a difference of opinion; I both welcome and respect that.  It is about a lack of respect for anyone who doesn’t think just like them.  Isn’t that what this country is supposed to be about?  Freedom of choice?  Then why don’t I also have the freedom to think for myself without judgement?

I have also noticed that if you aren’t mainly a troop support & political poster, you are somehow less worthy.  I just don’t think everything in my life has to be about being an Army wife, or an Army vet, or being pro troop.  There is so much more to life, to me.  I think it is okay to have fun, to twit about whatever, to not have to be serious all the time. 

I am an Army wife, I am an Army veteran, and I do support our troops.  But I am also a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend, a Democrat, and a pagan.  And none of those things make me less of an Army wife, less of an Army veteran, or less supportive of my troops.  Nor do they make me less intelligent, less legitimate, less credible, or less of a good person.