Why All The Attention?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/iraq-vet-oakland-police-tear-gas_n_1033159.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/26/occupy-oakland-veteran-critical-condition?newsfeed=true

Understandably, when someone prefaces their statements with " I would like to preface my statements with" they are about to contradict themselves.  To be up front, I am going to but I do some in a broad way and if you read what I have to say carefully, you will see them I truly support what is going on. 

1) Understandably a veteran has a certain place in America.  They fight, serve and die for our freedoms and our protection.  It is extremely patriotic to serve in the military.  I never have served, and that is something I have thought about many times. 
In order though to be fair, why is their such media attention if an veteran protests something?  Are they not like anyone else out there?  Does their protest ring louder or more true? Lots of every day people are out there protesting and they do not get the play veterans, or lawyers or whomever get.  This was a problem during the Vietnam protests as well.  Lots of people did little things to protest. They may have gone to a rally or they may not. While it became fashionable to do, many people took up wearing POW/MIA bracelets for men they did not know.  So, then I asks again does a veteran's protest weight more than a common person's? I think not.  All of the OWS protesters deserve recognition in some light or way.  Understandably this is hard, but it is a thought worth thinking.  Lots of people are not at the rallies themselves but support it by having their students read about it, or bringing it up at lunch so they and their co-workers can discuss it.  That is equally as patriotic as getting hit with a bean-bag round, or a veteran getting hit with a bean-bag round. 
By no means am I discrediting, I'm giving equal credit.

2) So you if you are freaked out by protest, go read about the Great Depression.  People think we have it rough now need to look back.  Go read the New York Times from '30, '31, '32. Read how people shot and butchered zebras in the NYC Zoo.  Try that on for size and see how it fits.  No way, no how, never is this Great Recession nearly as bad as the Great Depression.