Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Taking King to Task

Ray addresses recent comments made by author Stephen King, who told a group of students that if they didn't know how to read, they'd end up in the Army and Iraq.

5 comments:

chiefdave said...

Ray, You should hop over to newsbusters and see the banner these men and women are holding up.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/05/07/wednesday-funnies-halp-us-stevin-kenk-we-r-stuck-hear-n-irak
You are also mentioned by a couple people who appreciate you guys bringing this up. Thank-you very much. As in 26 years in the service I have met some really smart soldiers. Have a laugh!!Thanks

Bruce said...

Ray,
That is the first time I have heard you say that the Left knows what they are doing.
This is another non issue that the right and the conservative media is making into one.
King is not running for public office. Maybe he was slamming the war in Iraq. That is his perogative as an American. Of course the Right would like to take that right away from anyone who does not agree with them. Thank god we have an ACLU. It is possible to support our troops and not support the war they are fighting. The right just likes to lump the views together.
Bottom line, the entry level enlisted is who he was talking about. How many of those have you had on your show? The one who does drop out of school and the Army is there for?
When you rebut, Can you tell me the Army only takes those with a minimum of a high school diploma? You can't deny that kids have ben told in high school that if they can't get into college, maybe they should enlist. The draft certainly provided the enlisted ranks with a broader cross section of educational levels.
As I said before, he should have said you might end up flipping burgers or working for Fox Media.
Are you now going to advocate that all the organizations that he has given millions to, return the money? Go for it.

Ray Richardson said...

Bruce,

The problem with people who think like you is that you cannot focus on the issue. You want to make it something it was not intended.

I never, ever want to take away a person's right to say what they think. Did not advocate it here, nor have you EVER heard me advocate it anywhere. I believe the right to say what you think is the most important right in this country.

King took a shot at the military, period. You can pretty it up, call it what you want, but that is what he did.

If his angle was, if you cannot read, you are enslaving yourself to a lifetime of financial hardship, I am with him.

King hates Bush, hates this war and I think he is probably not to fond of the military.

You can attempt to twist what I said, as most liberals in Maine do because they cannot deal with what I actually said, but the truth is, he used his forum, the Library of Congress, to take a shot at the military.

It was a political statement. Why are you running from that fact? King made a political statement.

I did not agree with him, so I said something about it. My statement was a political statement.

I never suggested King's money should be given back, never suggested he could not say what he said. I disagreed with it, thought it was a cheap shot and the liberals around Maine could not stand it.

Face it, Stephen King took a cheap shot at the US military. That is his right to do and it is my right to criticize.

So typical of the left, you took it down a path I never went because there is no defense for what he did.

Ray Richardson said...

By the way, if he really wanted to scare them, he could have said:

"If you can't read, you will end up a FOX talk show host."

That was my comment yesterday on the air.

Bruce said...

We do not have an army of draftees any longer who are forced to fight in the politicians wars. We now have a paid professional army,just as we have paid professional firefighters, and policeman. It is a career or economic choice for them.
Many probably gambled that they would get in, do their time, then go to college. Now we have a war and enlistments are down even with the many new financial incentives that the pentagon is offering.

Why is it taboo to make any negative comments about our military for fear of being called unpatriotic?

Because most of us feel badly that we have allowed them to be deployed in a senseless war perpetrated by their commander in chief and we feel we should make sure they know we suport them as individuals.
It took the right a month to jump on King's statement. Must have been a slow news day when they did.