Twitter #MilitaryMon aka Military Monday

Last week, I participated in a sort of competition on Twitter to help honor and raise awareness for our troops. I confess that I'm generally a competitive person, and didn't think twice about signing up...even before any rules were written for the #militarymon event. The various 3-member team members teased and cajoled all week leading up to this marathon-type event. We wanted to help the #militarymon hashtag "trend" on Twitter...all in good fun, as any competition should be.

Our goal was to put enough messages out with the #militarymon tag to trend the hashtag on Twitter, and possibly have people click through and read the messages we tweeted. We didn't send out goofy messages...no undignified craziness to attract attention. There was no bickering or backbiting between opposing team members, or was there lack of support for one another's teams. Our messages were positive and informative. Most participants supported one another by "re-tweeting" opposing teams. After all, our goal was the same...so in that spirit we were really all part of the same team.

During this time, I shed tears for those troops in harms way, and their families who also serve at home. I shed tears for those service members we lost last week...whose lives were overlooked by the mainstream media who instead chose to cover the death of a single celebrity over and over and over again.

I felt the pain of those who have lost family members, and the pain of those who were waiting for any sort of word from their loved one serving in battle zones. I shed tears for those who were injured during the time of our competition. The more I cried, the harder I worked to get those folks recognized and honored.

By the time this competition was finished, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. But even then, I knew that it couldn't possibly compare to the exhaustion of our service members who are sleeping with one eye open...never knowing when they might need to jump up and be at the ready...like the soldier who made the news for quickly assuming his post in his pink boxers.

I'm very proud to have participated in this event, although it didn't seem to be recognized by Twitter.My prayer is that we gain ground every week with #militarymon...that we engage new members every week, and eventually take over Twitter's Mondays with support for our troops.