Dark Waters

While rational people in America breath a sigh of relief, I’m struggling with this uneasy feeling. I fear that the next week may be the most dangerous for this country since the first half of April, 1861. We have a huge number of elected officials of the Trump Party, including three from our state, who have decided to abandon the oath they took to protect the Constitution of the United States of America and follow the whims of their leader. In past times, we would have considered this the bottom. I fear, though, that there is no bottom for the followers of this deluded megalomaniac. There is always a next step lower for this man. Will, “Boys get your guns,” be next? Four things give me hope, on an otherwise cloud-foreboding day.

1.     The “boys” he would be talking to are a group of overweight, marginally functional, cowardly, irresponsible nitwits who would end up shooting one another more frequently than they would others.

2.     We have a military composed of fine women and men who took the same oath I did and still, as I do, honor it. It is much easier to abandon that oath as a politician without scruples than as a warrior whose comrades, as well as their country, depend on shared honor and the duty for which it calls. They are there to protect us.

3.     There is what I call “The Thomas Beckett Syndrome” in which people, like Saul on the road to Damascus, or John Newton on the decks of a slave ship, turn from evil and embrace a better life.

4.     I don’t think the political party of Winthrop Rockefeller, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Theodore Roosevelt will continue to sink into this mire.

If I have given offense, I can’t apologize. It’s that oath I mentioned. One can’t take an oath to protect his country and then forebear standing up to those who have either never taken the oath, and thus disparage it, or, worse, have taken and abandoned it. If we disagree on the facts of governing a country, you are still my brothers and sisters. I still love you. We can talk. I’m just asking that we stop this dangerous foolishness. We can save our country if we hold fast.

Fun

What an oddity. On a day that should be spent in solitude, reflecting upon both honoring fallen heroes and the safety of the human race, the beaches and parks will be filled with frolickers unwilling to spend even this day reflecting upon either honor or safety.

Oh, they will unfurl their dusty flags and attach their store-bought pins and other paraphernalia, They  may even post a patriotic cliche before they head out to enjoy life. Our patriotism seems to be stronger with those who have never had it tested.

And they will promise faithfully to hate those whom they blame for the global pandemic and any pain and loss it may have caused them. The truth or facts behind that hate are less important than the tribal source from which it sprang.

Out, far from the partygoers, lie countless white headstones marking the resting place of those who gave all of their tomorrows so we could have this day. Beyond those lie other grave sites filled with families who tasted full well the bitter dregs of loss and sacrifice. Their grandchildren and their grandchildren will countenance neither, not even today. Some mock and revile those who do.

Beneath almost each white headstone lies one who would follow the orders and examples of their leaders into smoke, fire, and death. The judgement of just wars and unjust wars may have never entered their thoughts. They followed their leaders to their “gory beds” for their comrades first, their families next, and then their country.

Sadly, the streets, underpasses, and forests house many of the living dead, still unable to shed the horror of sacrifice and its lasting effects.

Our leader will likely play golf today. We each choose the path to follow in this life.

Why I Wear My Veteran's Hat

I often wear my veteran’s hat in public.

- It pisses redneck conservatives off because a liberal-commie-hippie served and they didn’t.

- It makes liberals feel a little ashamed to see I don't pose much of a threat.

- It scares the hell out of people at Walmart and they don’t block your way talking on their cell phones.

- A DD 214 carries much more prestige than a flag lapel-pin.

- It allows another Brother to spot me.

- And … twice I’ve had strangers pay for my meals.

Good enough reasons, I would say.

Once in a blue moon, someone will say “Thank you for your service.” I’ve wondered what to say back.

“You’re only 50 years too late.” – No, too snarky.

“I didn’t serve, I survived.” – No, too whiney.

“It was my honor.” Oh, for Christ’s sake.

“Thank you.” – That will do in a pinch, but too passive.

Lately, and until next week, I’ve come up with what I consider a good one.

“I just did my duty. Please do yours and vote.”

On Kneeling …

Yesterday, I spent two hours with an AT&T tech, fixing an internet snafu at our Little Rock condo. On leaving, I discovered that he had served in the U.S. Army, with assignments in the Middle East, including Afghanistan. He didn’t learn his technical skills there. He served as a medic. My mind shot back to when I was waiting for the bus to take me to the air base at Da Nang to “leave country.”

Amidst the happy, talkative group waiting to go home, there was a young man in a wrinkled outfit with insignia stating that he was a Navy Corpsman. He didn’t talk, just stared through vacant eyes into space. I remember thinking how, after a year in a war zone, I couldn’t imagine what that man had experienced. That’s why I don’t respect people who swagger around with flag decals on their lapels and ask why I don’t wear one.

My oath of enlistment stated that I would “… support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I [would] bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” I’ve researched it numerous times, and I can’t find an exemption limiting that oath to people who look and believe like me.

After we boarded the plane, and it rose aboard the blue waters of the South China Sea, applause broke out. Among the celebrants was a sizable number of shipmates and comrades who, when arriving home would find themselves denied the opportunities and personal safety that I, a white man of Northern European descent, would enjoy. Some had fought their way through Hue, during the Tet Offensive. Some had defended Khe Sahn. Some had held dying friends in their arms. Some had served on riverboat patrols.

All had spent a year or more not knowing what breath they took might be their last.

Some had been called “boy” on the same day they had had suffered wounds on behalf of their country. Some would be stopped for “driving while black” on arrival in an ungrateful country. Some would be denied the opportunity to purchase a home, as I did, in a decent neighborhood. Some would be denied jobs because of the color of their skin.

Their oath of enlistment, which they had fulfilled with honor, was the same as mine.

I think about these things. In the famous line from the movie, they just wanted “their country to love them as much as they had loved it.”

 Kneel for the music, or stand for the music, it’s your right. I don’t give a damn one way or the other, and don’t expect me to. Flag decal or no, standing without having sacrificed will never make you as tall as a kneeling comrade who was shortchanged by the country he served.