Time magazine runs a regular feature called "Postcard" in their pages. This week it is on how Fayetteville, North Carolina is remarketing itself as military friendly by giving their mini baby-boom mamas a shower (and other marketing efforts). One thing I didn't like about their marketing is that they paint a picture of the rest of the nation being somehow ungrateful or downright hostile to military personnel. I think that is absolutely false (to say nothing of bad marketing!). I see people everywhere thanking, applauding, offering to buy soldiers coffee. The yellow ribbon on my mailbox is still up and that is a small gesture of support.
Still, credit where credit is due. The Fayetteville planners expect the military's economic impact in the area to go from $5 billion of $6.5 billion as bases elsewhere are close down and Fort Bragg and the Pope Ar Force Base grow. But that shouldn't take away from their good intentions.
I know you'll want to know: The baby boomlet came about after the return of some 22,000 of the 82nd Airborne soldiers from Iraq in October of 2007. (-: You'll also be interested to know that the town has assembled a support team of civilians to advise and help military personnel, some 900 of them.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence. Find it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/
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