A message to Mr. Romney from a Petty Officer in the US Navy

[pinboy3niner]

13. Mine: Mr. Romney, I am part of the 47%.

I receive partial combat disability retirement pay (non-taxable) from the Army, and I receive my health care from the VA.

AK fire in Vietnam blew away half my jaw and teeth and put a hole in my shoulder, and I was peppered with shrapnel. I know that may be hard to grasp for someone who spent that time in the thick of things in France, but bear with me.

I spent 18 months in an Army hospital before being retired for disability. Six years later, with about a year left to go for my undergrad degree, I had to drop out of university in California and relocate across the country so the bone graft to my jaw could be redone--twice--by the Navy's National Medical Center after the Army's original bone graft failed.

Don't worry yourself too much about me (as if I need to tell you that, lol!). I'm doing okay, even though my path didn't earn me hundreds of millions of dollars (believe it or not!). I've been used to living with my physical deficits for a long time now. (And would you believe it--my doctors ordered me not to ride motorcycles? According to them, it's too risky even for me to go skiiing!)

I hear that, according to you, the government has made me "dependent," that I've somehow come to believe that I'm a "victim," and that I am wrongly receiving undeserved "entitlements." When I heard that, believe me, some choice words came to mind for you--but I'll spare you that.

It does, however, strike me as incredible that a candidate for the Presidency could be so ignorant and clueless about our progressive tax system, and especially as regards the troops (over whom you hope to serve as Commander-in-Chief) and veterans. It boggles the mind.

By now you can probably tell that I won't be voting for you in November. But I guess that news is pretty much anticlimactic, as it seems you'd already written me off. Believe me, the feeling is mutual.

Peace,
pinboy3niner