The stories about San Francisco that have been inundating the blogosphere recently have caused me a lot of consternation.

First of all, I was born and lived most of my life within 60 miles or so of San Francisco, and many the time my friends or family and I would travel to the City for dinner, or just to have fun in the shops.  Those were fun and innocent times, when I had no clue about the crazed nature of some of the politics that was slowly building up.

We rode bicycles in the park, walking along Fisherman’s Wharf, visited the old fort under the Golden Gate Bridge and so much more.

Not until my Military days did I fully grasp the military sentiments in the Bay Area, and the subtle growing hostility. 

I have had an enlightening exchange with a resident of The City who is defending it a bit from it’s newer reputation as being a hostile place for the Military, ironically enjoying Fleet Week as we discussed it.

And it did make me remember that the city as a whole is represented by these anti war nut bags, but those sentiments are not wholly representative.  There are people who hold the Military in firm and unwavering respect, and they should be remembered.  One of the challenges in a representative government is that sometimes your government is representing others you disagree with, and all you can do is choke it down.

But.

I also have to wonder how the situation in San Francisco has become so outrageous, and my only conclusion is that more people agree with the nutbags then with some of the people who respect the Military.

Now the irony, is that the Military could end most of the complaints about it in the bay Area if it changed it’s policy on Gays.  The Gay community has a firm foot hold in San Francisco, and has for decades, and that alone has planted the seeds of the unrest about the Military.  The attempts to ban JROTC, the refusal to home port the Iowa, the unwillingness to house the Missouri battle group in the 80s were all tied directly to the subject of gays in the Military.