Vermont leads nation in Iraq deaths

[struggle4progress]

By WILSON RING
Associated Press Writer

<snip> Vermont, one of the most rural states in the country, sends one of the highest proportion of its population to the military, said Vermont National Guard spokeswoman Lt. Veronica Saffo.

"People who come from rural communities are people who are very patriotic," Saffo said. "Historically they are the ones ready to step forward for service. There are fewer perceived possibilites as far as employment, the military is that much more appealing to people from small towns."

The states and the District of Columbia with the smallest populations top the list of casualties when ranked per capita. After Vermont, whose population ranks 49th, comes North Dakota, ranked 48th; South Dakota, 46, and Wyoming, 51. In a quirk to the statistic, Alaska, whose population ranks 47th, has lost the fewest service members, one.

And within Vermont, the deaths are spread across the state in small towns from Albany near the Canadian border to Bennington on the Massachusetts border. Only two of the deaths come from Chittenden County, home to about a quarter of the state's population. <snip>

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/Stories/0,1413,104~8676~2680782,00.html

[Cha]

1. Wow ..who would have thunk it?

Vermont leading the Nation in deaths from the Iraqi Invasion!


How sad these boys are no longer with us.

[skygazer]

2. "People who come from rural communities are very patriotic,

What a load of crap. It's not because they're any more patriotic than anyone else - it's because they're poor and they dont't have a future. The military promises to send them to college, get them out of the small towns and let them see the world.

When I was growing up in Vermont in the late 60's and early 70's, most of the people I knew were looking at a dead end in life. Few of them could afford college, farming was being phased out as a profitable enterprise - shit, most of the kids I went to school with were from farming families. Their families had farmed for generations but now that it was their turn, the farm was going under. Not one of them that I can think of farms.

No future. Many of the people I grew up with are dead, killed by alcohol, or overdose or suicide or any of the things that kills people who have no hope. A lot of them joined the military. It's one of the only avenues poor rural people have of gaining any kind of future.

Patriotic? Well, maybe. But desperate is more like it.