We are social animals. We need a connection to others in order to maintain a stable emotional environment. This human connection is especially crucial to those of you serving in the military. The term, brothers-and-sisters-in-arms is no joke. The person next to you, as if you were linked together through the arms, could save your life. The trust formed with this intention is as strong as steel, and I have known it to last forever with most veterans. “I’ve got your back” becomes not just a rhetorical phrase, but a literal one, reflecting the depth of that trust.
Multiple sources, including the propaganda station Fox “News”, report that no less than 4 sources confirm that the male who is currently in the role of Commander in Chief of our military, calls you who serve or have served in the military, “losers”, and those who died, “suckers”, and insists that those of you who are wounded stay our of parades.
I heard all this with incredible horror, great sadness…and intense anger. You who took an oath to protect this country and our freedoms, and us, are “losers” to him. If you were maimed fighting for your life and those next to, in front of, and behind you, you are to be kept out of parades because he does not want to look at you. Those brothers-and-sisters-in-arms who have fallen or died of wounds, illness or old age, are “suckers” to him. The lovingly tended graves of those who were killed and buried on foreign soil are not worthy of visiting and paying respects to, because he did not want to mess up his hair. Besides, they are all “suckers” to him.
He…just…doesn’t…like you. He does not like honor. He does not like the concept of connection, or “got your back”. He is disconnected not only from the idea and behavior of the military, but the humans in the uniform. And apparently, he has no interest in trying to understand, or, unforgivably, to respect those of you who have served or who currently still serve.
You can say many things about Donald J. Trump. Your eyes can glaze over and you can proclaim your steadfast love and willingness to defend him. You can narrow your eyes, spit on his words and declare that this mob administration will end this November with a blue wave. However you view this male, he still regards you and maybe your father or mother, grandparent, ancestor, uncle/aunt, nephew/niece, son/daughter, grandchild…my father and ancestors, brothers/nephews/cousins…as a loser because he/she served, and a sucker if they died. You will stand at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and stare at the panel of names knowing he is calling each one a “sucker”. You can walk to the Korean Monument, the WWI and WWII monuments, and all the war monuments dedicated to all who fought and those who gave the greatest sacrifice, their lives, for our country, and know that he thinks of each and every one called to duty as a “loser”, and each and every one who died a “sucker”. You, standing there paying your respects, are a loser to him. If you lost part of your body or suffer from being damaged by combat, he turns his head away. He does not want you in his sight.
His belittles you and your service and rejects you only after he 1) publicly demeaned Gold Star families; 2) mocked veterans with combat PTSD for being weak; 3) insisted that traumatic brain injuries were just headaches; 4) proclaimed he didn’t like POWs because “they got caught”; and, horribly, 5) allows Putin to put bounties on the heads of our troops. He who faked bone spurs to avoid service and threatened to disinherit his son if he enlisted.
Politicians don’t care what you, a veteran, feels, thinks or says. That’s because of logistics: veterans don’t vote as a group on veterans’ issues. But when it is an issue of respect, pride, honor, sacrifice, I am suspecting this November 2020, veterans like you will damn well vote as a group, and it will be blue.
However, if you aren’t planning on showing any integrity or giving up your vapid admiration for the stench that is Donald J. Trump, keep those feelings. Follow him, support him, but don’t pretend he deserves to be our military’s Commander in Chief when he calls our troops losers and the dead suckers. For the truth of the matter is, not only does he think you are a loser, he thinks you and the rest of his supporters are “disgusting people” whose hands he doesn’t even want to shake. Human connection, to him, is vile and repulsive. He needs to be removed from his post as Commander in Chief, which you could do by voting him out, and still follow him in his next role, and praise him all you want.
But if you don’t vote blue and get a new, decent human being for Commander in Chief, don’t bother explaining to me why. There is NOTHING that could ever justify his speech or actions towards this country’s military and its servicemen and women. He needs to be held accountable and suffer the consequences. I won’t tolerate anything else, not for the veterans I advocate for. Nor will I tolerate hypocrisy from someone who claims to be proud of his/her service, and then votes to keep this traitor in office.
You have done your duty and enlisted. Now do your duty and vote…him…out.
A proud salute to my brothers-and-sisters-of-the-heart, for your service to our country.