This week I got a few emails from various politicians and self-righteous citizens encouraging me to thank our troops this holiday season...by sending a text message. That's right, a text message.

Words. Fail. Me.

From the America Supports You website:

“This is a simple way to connect our citizens to our soldiers using modern technology,” Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison [Ed. Note: How the hell did they come up with that job?], said of the text messaging program.

The program, which already has received nearly 4,000 messages, officially kicks off at 6 a.m. EST Nov. 17 and concludes at midnight PST Nov. 22. Between those times, people wishing to express gratitude to the troops for their service can text a brief message to 89279. Each text message sent will receive a response from an active-duty servicemember in return.

Connect our citizens and soldiers? By sending a text message? Could we get any more disconnected and distant than that?

I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'd like to text message something like F YOU, ENJOY UR FING THXGVNG to Captain Asshat, or maybe its because I'm just in a funk over the IC closing down (yes, still) but for chrissake, this seems outrageously low down to me. It's not like the last line of Flanders Fields is "In Flanders Fields/I got a text message."

Perhaps some of my Army/Navy/deployed readership can weigh in on this and -- please -- correct me if I'm wrong.