Veterans’ Day Thoughts--Nov 11, 2022
I feel almost broken today. For most of my life, surely all
my adult life, I have felt I was patriotic. I love my country whether or not I
favor any current government. I am a “nationalist’’ and also a staunch
supporter of the military, especially our veterans. I worked for the army and
air force for twenty five years, seeing their flaws, but never ceased to
respect them. As a VFW Auxiliary life member, my money goes ahead of my mouth
there. The old saw “All gave some and some gave all” does not feel like a
truism to me; it is a Truth in the deepest sense. However, today I am almost
embarrassed to call myself a patriot. Several important labels I want to claim
have been preempted by a group of false prophets to throw a concealing ‘flag’
over their nefarious schemes and plans. I do not want to be mistaken for one of
them.
I am deeply saddened to see how many people who I have long considered
friends and always held in deep regard and respect have been mislead by these
same false prophets. They have tragically become seduced into idolatry of a
“golden calf” to a degree that leaves them blind and brainwashed, unable to see
truth and good buried by lies and deceptions. I have to feel pity as well as
horror over what I perceive.
The real traitors are not the ones those ‘leaders’ deceitfully
label as such. To wit, a current candidate for Senator in Arizona blatantly
scorns and denigrates the military and says that our country has never
participated in a “just war.” A
candidate for governor wants to secede from the United States and make Arizona
an independent nation. A candidate for Arizona Secretary of State, which is the official charged with
overseeing and managing elections, is a self- proclaimed member of the Oath
Keepers and was admittedly in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 with intent to
violently reject tradition, constitutional law and historic practice. While he apparently did not enter the Capitol,
he was there to aid, abet and encourage those who did. Why he has evaded any
charges I have no idea. All three have never served in the military they so
scorn and the two men probably could have emulated their idol (that golden
calf) and managed a 4F status by ingrown toenails, crooked teeth or similar
“defects.”
What have we come to? I am past shock and disgust. I did
vote yet had to choose the lesser of evils in many cases. I have been Conservative
most of my adult life and still subscribe to most of the ideas and tenets of
that group. Unfortunately, the old Republican party of Goldwater, Reagan and
others has been prostituted and contorted into something far different. I do
not call this new movement Republican. Let them wear other labels that fit
closer--“Christian” nationalists, neo-fascists and white supremacists. How can
they dare to call themselves “Patriots”?
I still believe in less government intervention in almost
all aspects of our life and national posture; I do not feel throwing vast sums
of money at a problem does anything to ‘fix’ it; and I do not think reverse
discrimination is the answer to the problems US minorities and ‘people of
color’ continue to struggle with. In short, it is mostly reinforcing the idea
they are somehow “inferior” and cannot make it on their own! So I am not at
heart a Progressive or Liberal and shall not be one. But the New Alt-Right is
NOT my home either. The one-time ‘party of the people’ (Democrats) has become
as much or more the party of the powerful and affluent as the old business and
free enterprise party (Republicans) has ever been. Working people now have no
champion. Oh, we are given lip service in the pursuit of votes and
control, but it is completely hollow.
So today I am torn and sad, feeling very disenfranchised and
homeless in a political and ideological way. Perhaps as my grandfather said
when approaching his 100th birthday in 1997, I have lived long
enough. Maybe even too long. Many days I feel like a dinosaur and totally out
of step and out of place in this 2022 world. What is there to live for, look up
to, revere and believe in today? I find
no answer. There are still many good people who do their best to be courteous,
caring and compassionate--but few to none of them run for office. They would never be
allowed to win and would be crucified in the meantime.
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