Micheline Doan stops by to, well, disagree with my take on the CCRW. She's wrong. But you can read, and you can decide.

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Here is Doan's perspective on my post regarding the so-called "Veteran's Dinner," as she left it in the comments section below, unedited or unabridged.

Who the hell are you? There is no name to this comments that are deliberately personally demeaning about a group of women you know nothing about. So what you
served your country for 14 years. When did you serve? Did you serve with my with
my father who was in a B17 over Germany in WWII? Did you serve with my brother-in-law when he was killed in Vietnam and received the Bronze star. Or did you serve with my 100% disabled husband? How dare you attack a disabled veteran because you personally don't like the Republicans. Well there is another party and you can go to it. You already sound like a jackass. You know nothing about our veterans dinner where the raffle prize goes to a veterans organization or charity. Last year we gave $200.00 from our dinner the Support our troops to go to military families in need. I have to explain this to you because I'm sure you have no idea about these charities because you come across rather selfish. You are owed no explanation about our group but you have malaigned[sic] a very good group so I'm going to educate you. If you are ignorant than maybe you can learn something that will make you stop next time and get your facts straight. But if you are stupid as I suspect then there is no hope for you. I plan to let all the women in my group know by reading them this blog just what kind of insulting pig you are. I am assuming some of them are your friends so if I were you I'd watch out because this time you have overstepped.

Micheline Doan member of the CCRW

Don't you just love the big-tent, diversity of opinions openness fostered by this type of pure Nazi mentality?

I publish this here, because almost anyone disagreeing with me is first, entitled to do so and second, entitled to have that perspective published in this blog, so I can take a shot at responding.

Isn't freedom swell?

So, here goes:

Who the hell I am is pretty well described in the lower left column of this blog.

But right this very second, I am what you are not: a Veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States.

You see, you are what I refer to as a "coat holder." You are a member of an organization of "coat holders."

Coat holders are those who take advantage of Veterans but who, for whatever the reason, never felt compelled to strap on the uniform of the United States because, after all, there was always someone else to protect us from all "enemies, foreign and domestic."

Who am I? I'm the guy who found himself in snow up to his ass with an M-16 in my hands on the East German border while my classmates were still playing basketball for Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood . I'm the guy who put his entire life on hold to defend this country as an Armored Recon Scout, a crew served weapons instructor, a trainer of thousands, and someone who stood a post on that Wall.

What have you done? I mean you seem to KNOW people who sacrificed... but I missed the part where you wrote that YOU were a Veteran. Did you just overlook that?

Who you know that actually served as if that means something is as moronic as that empty suit we just elected to Congress telling me that her ten years of absence from the district right before McMorris and Boldt muscled her appointment; partying, interning and going to school was the "exact some thing as serving in the military."

Well guess what. It ain't.

You don't really give a damn about Veterans, using us to make your organization money aside, because if you really did care, you would have hacked your fingers off before you wrote:

So what you served your country for 14 years.

Yes, yes I did.

And I do so respect your appreciation for that service.

You see, in the 38 years since I enlisted in the Army during that little tiff in SE Asia, I have discovered there are three kinds of people: those who served; those, like you, who didn't, and those, like you, who want to gain, either directly or indirectly, from the efforts of those who did.

My family tree is similar to yours. My father at Pearl Harbor; my dead Army Veteran brother and my totally debilitated, unable to speak and barely walk Navy Veteran brother.

But the thing is.... who you know... who you're related to... all of that is completely irrelevant. You're either a Veteran, or you're not.

And you're not. The rest is eyewash.

And you're either using Veterans to make money for your organization, or you're not.

And you are. The rest is eyewash.

And the other thing is, this "dinner" is either a political fundraiser or it isn't. And if it's a political fund raiser, then your use of the phrase "Tribute to America's Veterans" is far more despicable then anything I wrote in my post calling your organization out.

And it is a political fundraiser. And your invite did fail to mention that.

And it does use the sacrifice of others to make YOUR organization money.

See, your faux outrage doesn't change the fact that nowhere in your diatribe did you write that I had lied about the dinner.

You write:

You know nothing about our veterans dinner where the raffle prize goes to a veterans organization or charity.

Au contraire.

This is what I know, received after asking from the anonymous source at info@clarkcountygop.org:

CCRW will likely receive a net gain of around $100 after meals are paid for and they will be donating $150.00 to the DAV. They operate on a very small budget.

That response is what led me to post my position on the dinner and the organization behind it. I believe that if, in fact, it's a "Veteran's Dinner," then every dime should go to Veterans. Period. All of it. Clearly, you don't share that view. And that's what's driving this.

I wrote 5 specific things in the post that seems to make you so, well, upset. You don't seem to refute any of them.

I wrote that I didn't serve so that a political organization could make money off my efforts or those of millions of others under the guise of a "tribute" to us Veterans.

You don't dispute that.

I wrote that this is a fund raiser for your organization.

You don't dispute that.

I wrote that "Veteran's Tributes" don't require door prizes or raffles.

You don't dispute that.

I wrote that there is a Vancouver Chapter of the DAV, and it seemed kind of, well, odd that your organization would overlook that to get someone "affiliated" (whatever that means) with the Portland DAV to speak. I indicated that it smacked of a "deal."

At the end of the day, your sturm and drang aside, you don't seem to dispute that, either.

And finally, I wrote that since this is, at least in part, a CCRW Fundraiser, your announcements and invites should make that clear... again, something you don't seem to dispute.

And here, of course, is where I point out that as a former Washington State 5th District American Legion Commander, a former Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter President and a former American Legion Post Vice Commander, I have done more and given more for Veterans before breakfast then you have during the entirety of your life.

That I disagree with this single instance of what you are doing "maligns" nothing. That I pointed out that it's kind of bizarre that you get some guy from Portland when we've got a bunch over here to speak attacks no one. That your panties are in such a bunch and you seem so very angry indicates to me that you are protesting just a bit too much.

As for who you direct to this blog, I really don't care. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your enemy's friends... sky write it.

And while you are many things, "me" ain't one of them. I write what I feel and what I believe. Unlike you, I have EARNED THE PRIVILEGE THAT THE SACRIFICES OF SO MANY OTHERS HAVE JUST HANDED TO YOU ON A SILVER PLATTER.

Tomorrow morning at 0700, I'll be lowering my US Flag/POWMIA Flag down the flagpole to Half-Mast. Around 9 hours later, I'll raise it back up to it's Full Mast position, where, lit up in the dark, it will wave at 24 feet, like it does every night... and every day.

And instead of thinking about the purity of what that gesture is supposed to mean, I'll be thinking about a group of spiteful women who view this special day as a way to make money.

Because, I've got to tell you... as a Veteran, you can take your "tribute" and shove it.

Who the hell am I?

I'm an American. I'm a Veteran. I'm an elected GOP PCO in the 18th District. Like you, I am exercising my right to speak my mind. You, of course, may exercise your right not to read my words.

And while my name is as irrelevant as the service and sacrifice of people you know or are related to somehow provides you with some sort of self-justification for your diatribe (Bulletin: it doesn't), I'll end your suspense.

I am the worst-kept secret in blogdom. My name is Hinton. And unlike you, I am a Veteran.
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