Did Union Station really diss the military? No.

Some confusion over a Dec. 19 Christmas party at Union Station by the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base led to accusations that Union Station Foundation wasn’t being nice to the military.

I won’t rehash it all here — click on the link above — Roberta Beverly, the Union Station Foundation director, had a letter to the editor earlier this week explaining the station’s position. Our web site has a letter today from the wing commander, Col. Scott Long, offering a sincere apology for the misunderstanding.

Col. Long is a gentleman. The bottom line is, people need to check facts before getting all ticked off.

I’ve known Roberta for years and know she’d never diss the military — if nothing else, it’s incredibly bad PR for Union Station, which has all the trouble it can handle just staying alive financially. It’s owned by Ogden, but has to survive on its own financial resources.

There seems to be a predisposition in this country by some people — a very loud group  — to assume that the military doesn’t get enough respect and jump on anything they think proves that disrespect. I get emails regularly claiming that the news doesn’t run pictures of GIs in Afghanistan helping little kids (usually accompanied by a picture of a GI helping a little kid that was copied off a news source) or that we didn’t honor some military hero who died (even though he died five years ago in another state).

It’s as if they want to be angry and just need an excuse. Facts don’t matter.

It is very nice to see that both Col. Long and Roberta are going out of their way to smooth things over. I wish more people would do that.