There is a new voice in the blogasphere (however you spell it-my dictionary wasn’t much help).

Go visit Red Bull Rising

Say “Hi” and Welcome to the neighborhood!!!

Most likely, you will get kicked in the teeth. At least, if you are in the Military, and you are a blogger.

The treatment of milblogger C.J. Grisham of A Soldier’s Perspective (http://www.soldiersperspective.us/) by his community and his command structure, has been deplorable.  C.J. has earned accolades and respect, from the White House on down for his honest, and sometimes blunt, discussion of issues — particularly PTSD.  In the last few months, C.J. has seen an issue with a local school taken to his command who failed to back him, and has even seen his effort to deal with PTSD, and lead his men in same by example, used against him as a part of this.  Ultimately, C.J. has had to sell his blog to help raise funds for his legal defense in this matter.

On Wednesday 16 December 2009, many milblogs — including This Ain’t Hell, From My Position, Blackfive, Miss Ladybug, Boston Maggie, Grim’s Hall, Bouhammer, and those participating in the Wednesday Hero program — are going silent for the day.  Some are choosing to go silent for a longer period of time.

Participating blogs:
A Soldier’s Perspective
You Served
Bouhammer
The American Legion
Laughing Wolf
Hugh Hewitt
This Ain’t Hell
Castle Argghhh
Boston Maggie
Blackfive
Miss Ladybug
Hooah Wife
Kiss My Gumbo
Some Soldiers Mom
Assoluta Tranquillita
Knee Deep in the Hooah
Soldiers’ Angel New York
Drunken Wisdom
Grim’s Hall
From my position
CDR Salamander
Confederate Yankee
Chromed Curses
Homefront Six
Pvt Murphey’s Law
Delta Bravo Sierra
The Sniper
Another Voice
Support your Local Gunfighter
Knottie’ s Niche
Great Reader JihadGene
America’s North Shore Journal
Righty in a Lefty State
Thunder Run
Gazing at the Flag
Neptunus Lex
Soldiers Angels Germany
Bring the heat, bring the stupid
Little Drops….. Into the pool of life.
The Gun Line
Thirdwavedave
In Iraq Now (at 56)
Milblogging.com
Army Houesehold6
Susan Katz Keating
The Mudville Gazette

Covering the story:
Instapundit
Michelle Malkin
National Review’s The Corner
Ace of Spades
Jawa Report
Winds of Change
Cao’s Blog
Free Republic
Dr. Melissa Clouthier
Villainous Company
The Washington Independent

You can donate to CJ’s Legal Fund by logging into PayPal, go to the send money page, and put in his email: dj_chcknhawk (AT) yahoo (DOT) com; or, you can send donations directly to:

Grisham Legal Fund
c/o Redstone Federal Credit Union
220 Wynn Drive
Huntsville, AL 35893

Please write “Grisham Legal Fund” in the memo line if you use this option.

Stop and think for a moment: Here is a man who has put his life on the line for our country, and he is being treated like crap by the very people who should be thanking him for his service.  The people who ran whining to C.J.’s commanding officer, were exercising their freedom of speech by trying to deny the very same right to the man who has spent his career protecting their right to behave like a jackass. And the fact that his command failed to back him up, sucks. How can we expect to get and retain the caliber of people we need to protect us, if we kick them in the teeth when they need backup?

Freedom of Speech is one of the keystones of what keeps our country what it is. We can’t continue to silence every voice that we disagree with, just because we have a different agenda. We should expect people in positions of authority to behave like adults. Unfortunately, from what I see here, our Military folks are under attack from more than just the Taliban.

To quote Pogo “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

The employees at the VA Mortgage Center are offering to pay your blog hosting bill for one year. You must currently run a military blog and be able to send them a copy of your hosting invoice. This is only for MilBloggers and categorization as such is at the  discretion of the VA Mortgage Center.  Their  employees have decided to do this because the MilBlogging community has done so much for them. Go to this page http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/milblog.html and sign up! A sweet deal for our military bloggers!!!