Before getting grumpy over the lady that cut you off on the highway, before yelling at your spouse for squeezing the toothpaste from the wrong end, before ripping your hair out over your dumb cunt of a boss, and before punching the father of that child that just kicked your child, keep that shit in perspective.  If the worst thing that happened to you today was getting cut off on the freeway, you should be counting your lucky stars and thanking your blessings.

Remember how angry you were after 9/11?  So very angry about all the death and destruction inflicted on your fellow Americans?  2,700 dead and thousands more injured?

Remember the outrage you felt over Hurricane Katrina?  So very outraged about the slow response and the lack of help for the residents of New Orleans?  Close to 1,000 dead and thousands more injured?

There's a war raging right now.  A war in which Americans are killed and injured every day.  Every day!  Today, yesterday, and tomorrow.  Every day an American soldier is getting seriously wounded.  Still feeling depressed over the TPS report you forgot to put the new cover sheet on?  If you are, you should feel shamed.

More than 2,000 dead and 15,000 injured American soldiers in Iraq.  That's more deaths than Katrina caused and will eventually surpass 9/11.  Where's your anger now?  Where's your outrage now?  Do you only exhibit such feelings when the tragedy is located within the borders of your country?  Actually, I can understand that.  There was violence and destruction and bleeding and broken bones and fire (so much fire) in the France riots, but I didn't really care, it wasn't here.  Tsunami in Asia?  Big deal.  Didn't affect anyone I know.  But even if you share that attitude ... this war ... these American soldiers.  Soldiers who would have come home after the war and raised families or opened businesses or continued to serve to be there for the next skirmish.

I know they are soldiers and they signed up for this when they enlisted.  I subscribe to that line of thinking.  They should not have joined if they weren't prepared for the risks.  But here's what they didn't sign up for: driving un-armored, un-battle-ready, trucks through hostile territory.  Losing an arm from a grenade thrown by a child.  Running over civilians in the street because they're instructed to never stop a moving vehicle for any reason.  Coming home with post traumatic stress disorder so severe they can't sleep at night, hallucinate during the day, and can't get treatment for it because the VA is under funded.  Their country hanging them out to dry with no clear plan of what the objectives are or what comes next.

Soldiers want to fight for justice, kill those who are evil, feel proud about it, and feel welcomed when they come home.  If they must die or be injured, they want it to be for a good cause.  They want it to be while chasing down Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan (remember him?), not while helping a country that doesn't seem to care they are being helped.  Not while following orders for the sake of following orders.

And you.  You, with your pitiful yellow ribbon on the back of your car in a "show of support".  What the fuck is that?  Is that supposed to make a newly quadriplegic soldier feel better, or is it supposed to make you feel better?  As if you're some kind of upstanding supporter of the troops.  That yellow ribbon enables you to go about your day like normal, bitching about your insignificant "problems", all while feeling secure that you're doing all you can to support our guys.

There are more important issues in the world, larger problems in our country, to be upset about; other than your ripped pantyhose or that the grocery store doesn't carry your favorite chardonnay.  Give the people around you an extended vacation from your bitching and whining.  Keep some perspective on yourself.