Mr. Hiatt, I want you to know me before I proceed to try to inform you about how low a life form you really are.

I served my country for seven years. Three with the 82nd Airborne and four with 10th Special Forces Group. You say the men and women who die for our country die for nothing.

You do not understand how great a country this is. My guess is you really know nothing about the military besides what you see in movies and the media.

My guess is you have never traveled outside the United States to compare how people live in the rest of the world to the way we live.

We are very fortunate for those who laid down their lives in peace and in war. I have seen the flag-draped caskets go by as I saluted those that had fallen. How many you ask? Twenty-seven. And you dare to say they died for nothing.

Those men died so you could have the right to speak out against this country. They died for all of us, even a low life like you, and you have no respect for what they did.

I have more respect for the enemies I faced than you. At least they had pride in themselves and their countries. The sad thing is we have to listen to you.

We have to let you speak, though you spit on every man and woman who forfeited his or her life for you.

If we didn’t, we wouldn’t respect and honor what they did.

I pray there will never be another war, but if there is one, I would return to service – even if it meant losing my life to protect you from oppression. I can take comfort in knowing that someone like you would never serve this country. God help us all if our freedom was in your hands.

John Robert Bryant

Sophomore

Management information systems