Magazine kind of sucks but members submit some good essays of historical Marine Corps events and its good reading on the shitter. Look at old mags from when the Marine Corps published Leatherneck internally and it was an adult subscription with great "news" and stories relevant to Marines actually serving. Now its just third party public affairs crap for the most part.
Irks me as of late that there seems to be a political disposition of sorts that perhaps Im just overly sensitive to.
This month a retired Top wrote a letter to the editor calling the Commandant whiny for his position on the display of Confederate flags and the editor went off on the Top.
Why even print the comments if they were thought offensive unless looking to puff up your SJW cred?
Anyway wrote my own reply to them...Might have to find something else to read in the shitter. How is the writing in Penthouse?
What ever happened to "Praise in Public. Admonish in Private"?
I guess earning a Social Justice Warrior ribbon supersedes traditional Marine Corps leadership principles.
Living in the United States we live with freedom of opportunity not freedom from offense. People have a right to express their ideas and opinions. As editors of the magazine you have the editorial freedom to either publish or not publish a view. You apparently had an agenda to push and took the opportunity to do so.
I understand the frustration expressed by Top Decker. He has likely observed the government involved in operations that shipped arms to cartels and those weapons being used against American law enforcement officers with deadly results, Internal Revenue officials admitting to serious wrong doing to impede free speech, Justice Department and Intelligence agency officials being called out in IG reports for serious indiscretions, and protesters in American cities destroying public and private property with no one being held accountable, yet it is going to become zero tolerance policy to nail some Lance Corporal from Alabama to the wall for trying to memorialize his long dead relative. This atmosphere of failing discipline and order followed by unbalanced justice should be disappointing to all Marines.
I understand the Confederate Flag is a symbol of division and offensive to many. Perhaps I should have been offended a scant 40 odd years after WWII standing at attention in Okinawa as the Japanese national anthem was played and the Japanese National Colors were run up the pole. This was the nation that within living memory had hacked Lt Col Goettge to pieces after a prisoner tricked his patrol into a humanitarian surrender mission. I wasn't offended because that wasn't my war or my era.
I recently renewed my subscription to MCA. Though I enjoy the historical essays in Leatherneck I am beginning to get disturbed by the political posturing.
It is a problem I feel throughout the military and a symptom of our political polarization.
I have been fortunate to attend a high-profile Marine Corps Birthday event near me as the guest of a Guadalcanal veteran for the last 7 or 8 years. It has been disturbing to hear high ranking USMC officers make disparaging remarks toward a duly elected government official. It is not the place of a military officer to express political beliefs in a public forum. Its his/her individual right to have those feelings but keep them private and follow your lawful orders. Commandant Berger speaking at this event most recently was actually a breath of fresh air as he spoke with humor and kept focused on the topic at hand, the past and future of the Marine Corps. There was no political slighting or promoting.
Leatherneck's book excerpt last issue on Senator Joe McCarthy was nothing but an agenda pushing hit piece. An author with a background from a politically biased newspaper questioning Marine officer McCarthy's war time service offended me. Any person willing to sit in the back of an aircraft of that era, manning twin .30 caliber machine guns and flying a mission should not have their bravery questioned. Would he be so diligent to question Lyndon Johnson's' Silver Star awarded for being a passenger on an aircraft just in the theater? Add to that your offensive choice of publishing a photo of Sgt Maj Canley being awarded his Medal of Honor that entirely conceals the current President. It strikes me as chosen with intent. Why not either choose a photo that clearly shows both the President and Sgt Maj Canley or if you don't like the man choose one that includes only Sgt Maj Canley? I think your bias is showing and the military has no place for it.
Field day your own quarters before you start going off on Top Decker.
Respectfully.
Irks me as of late that there seems to be a political disposition of sorts that perhaps Im just overly sensitive to.
This month a retired Top wrote a letter to the editor calling the Commandant whiny for his position on the display of Confederate flags and the editor went off on the Top.
Why even print the comments if they were thought offensive unless looking to puff up your SJW cred?
Anyway wrote my own reply to them...Might have to find something else to read in the shitter. How is the writing in Penthouse?
What ever happened to "Praise in Public. Admonish in Private"?
I guess earning a Social Justice Warrior ribbon supersedes traditional Marine Corps leadership principles.
Living in the United States we live with freedom of opportunity not freedom from offense. People have a right to express their ideas and opinions. As editors of the magazine you have the editorial freedom to either publish or not publish a view. You apparently had an agenda to push and took the opportunity to do so.
I understand the frustration expressed by Top Decker. He has likely observed the government involved in operations that shipped arms to cartels and those weapons being used against American law enforcement officers with deadly results, Internal Revenue officials admitting to serious wrong doing to impede free speech, Justice Department and Intelligence agency officials being called out in IG reports for serious indiscretions, and protesters in American cities destroying public and private property with no one being held accountable, yet it is going to become zero tolerance policy to nail some Lance Corporal from Alabama to the wall for trying to memorialize his long dead relative. This atmosphere of failing discipline and order followed by unbalanced justice should be disappointing to all Marines.
I understand the Confederate Flag is a symbol of division and offensive to many. Perhaps I should have been offended a scant 40 odd years after WWII standing at attention in Okinawa as the Japanese national anthem was played and the Japanese National Colors were run up the pole. This was the nation that within living memory had hacked Lt Col Goettge to pieces after a prisoner tricked his patrol into a humanitarian surrender mission. I wasn't offended because that wasn't my war or my era.
I recently renewed my subscription to MCA. Though I enjoy the historical essays in Leatherneck I am beginning to get disturbed by the political posturing.
It is a problem I feel throughout the military and a symptom of our political polarization.
I have been fortunate to attend a high-profile Marine Corps Birthday event near me as the guest of a Guadalcanal veteran for the last 7 or 8 years. It has been disturbing to hear high ranking USMC officers make disparaging remarks toward a duly elected government official. It is not the place of a military officer to express political beliefs in a public forum. Its his/her individual right to have those feelings but keep them private and follow your lawful orders. Commandant Berger speaking at this event most recently was actually a breath of fresh air as he spoke with humor and kept focused on the topic at hand, the past and future of the Marine Corps. There was no political slighting or promoting.
Leatherneck's book excerpt last issue on Senator Joe McCarthy was nothing but an agenda pushing hit piece. An author with a background from a politically biased newspaper questioning Marine officer McCarthy's war time service offended me. Any person willing to sit in the back of an aircraft of that era, manning twin .30 caliber machine guns and flying a mission should not have their bravery questioned. Would he be so diligent to question Lyndon Johnson's' Silver Star awarded for being a passenger on an aircraft just in the theater? Add to that your offensive choice of publishing a photo of Sgt Maj Canley being awarded his Medal of Honor that entirely conceals the current President. It strikes me as chosen with intent. Why not either choose a photo that clearly shows both the President and Sgt Maj Canley or if you don't like the man choose one that includes only Sgt Maj Canley? I think your bias is showing and the military has no place for it.
Field day your own quarters before you start going off on Top Decker.
Respectfully.
