BFA Graduation Ceremony

[rdmapes]

On Sunday my son graduated from BFA. I was extremely impressed that Mr. Lang took the time to mention the young men in this case who chose to serve their nation and state. Whether or not citizens approve of the current world situation or president it is important to acknowledge those who serve and make the decision to serve.
For my son Anthony, he chose to turn down his acceptance to Norwich and join the VT Army Guard with plans to go active duty. I am extremely proud of his decision to serve as well as those other young men who have chosen this path.
For those who were not there:

Josh Boucher - VT Army Guard
Sam Graves - VT Army Guard
Jake Langelier - VT Army Guard
Anthony Mapes - VT Army Guard
Elijah Paradee - US Navy

More could be said, but this is enough.

[Henry]

Ron, you have every right to be very proud of Anthony, as I actually know him much better than I do the other young men - The parents of all of these young men have every right to be proud of their son's choices.

[gmlw]

very impressive group of young men and it was a fitting acknowledgment by Principal Lang....if I'm not mistaken weren't all of these young men members of the bfa football team?  thanks to them for their service..you should be very proud of your son...what a nice fathers day gift.

[klangelier]

You're right, these five young men all played varsity football at BFA.  Thank you Scott for recognizing them!  I think it was gratifying for them to see such wonderful support from their classmates and their community.

[Henry]

Below is a link to a video of Scott Lang acknowledging the five young men:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdWNTG79Ky4

[NorthFairfaxBoy]

I couldn't agree more with some of the comments.  Its good to see there are some youths in this state that aren't swayed to believe that serving this country is as bad as others make it out to be.

Brian Farris
BFA-Fairfax Class of 1987

[Loctavious]

I don't think all of them have been 'swayed' to think serving is bad.  Sure, some folks have really forwarded their peace movements and the kids of today are buying in.  WHO doesn't want peace.  BUT, we all must be realistic of the world we live in at the moment. 

I've also heard from the youths i've spoken to about this topic, that they don't want to die.  In addition to that, they don't want the guilt of murder on their hands.  You can label them whatever you want, enemy combatants, insurgents, islamic terrorists, but in the end - they're humans.  No matter that they gladly would kill one of us, that's their culture - not ours. 

Only if our Military's might could go back to being a huge deterrent, instead of a HUGE police force, or Humanitarian savior force, or regional security police, or democratic champion police.  I like dit better when our troops were only used to maintain stability instead of fighting questionable wars.