Good morning, students of Cherry Hill East. I am Tim Daye, Sergeant First Class, United States Army, and I am very disappointed in all of you.

Every few weeks in Cafeteria One, I would set up my table with the cool little Army flag-blanket thing on it, brochures, and the like. I even brought in a fancy TV thingy showing cool videos from recruit training. I bring in carabiners and pens and pencils and all sorts of cool little free things to reward those of you who come up for being interested in defending your country.

Only it seems you’re not coming up because of that, are you?

No, you’re just coming up for the carabiner. Or the pens. Or the pencils, or the bumper stickers, or any one of the other nice things the Army has brought in for you as a reward for being upstanding citizens and volunteering to defend this proud nation. You don’t want to serve, you want to mooch. Do you see that bald eagle decal on my car? It is crying because of the greed you have shown. You have made a bald eagle, the symbol of my beloved country, cry. How does that make you feel? Pretty bad, I imagine.

So I’ll keep coming in out of the hope that one, just one, of you wants to serve. And I’ll keep assuming that those of you who come up here are folks interested in giving back to their country.

And not that you come up here for the random free stuff that we have on this table.