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I’ve spent more than a month thinking about what I wanted to say this Veteran’s Day. I thought perhaps this year would be less contentious than last, but it doesn’t seem that way. Our politics and culture is as divided as ever.
I hope that at least on the issue of our nation’s veterans we can all agree to set aside politics and division for just a little while. I maintain a Facebook account just to keep in touch with friends and relatives, and rarely, if ever, debate politics there. Others don’t seem to feel the same.
I’ve watched comrades I’ve been to war with savage each other over issues of race, guns, taxes, and even things as silly as the NFL. It has saddened me to see men and women who served side by side in the darkest of times forget that they are friends and comrades and assume the worst about each other. I’ve watched silently, reading their posts, replies, and counter-replies, but not commenting myself.
My heart is heavy as those who happen to be of a different race savage each other over the issue. I never considered it before, simply because it didn’t matter to me. They were my comrades. Most served with me as subordinates, a few others as superiors or peers. All were, and still are, my brothers and sisters.
I’ll put things in a larger perspective that most people can understand. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is someone whom I find politically reprehensible, as he runs as a conservative every six years, and behaves as no such thing while in office. Yet I find any attack upon his years spent in a North Vietnamese prison camp as disgusting. McCain was given the opportunity to go home early, yet refused to go without his fellow prisoners. If one cannot respect that service, in and of itself, how can you respect anything?
Kurt Schlichter and I have disagreed on Twitter often enough, usually over candidate, and now President Trump. I disagree with some of Kurt’s support for Trump as unwarranted, but I’ve never lost respect for Kurt’s long and honorable service in the Army. He’s a good man, and his service should be honored.
A man I almost NEVER agree with is Montel Williams. The former talk show host and Naval Academy graduate and I have sparred often enough over a variety of issues. We’re about as far apart on the political spectrum as it gets. And yet we follow each other on Twitter, even giving each other a hard time over each other’s branch of service like vets tend to do. Montel is my brother, and always will be, no matter how much we fight over politics.
Sure, there are those that were and still are in the military I don’t respect, but that come from what I know about their behavior in the military, not because of political beliefs. But those I just disagree with politically don’t stop being my brother or sister because of that.
I hope those I served with, and others, will come to that same place at some point. I frankly wish ALL people could serve in the military simply so they could find that same bond that I value so much in my fellow veterans. If we could at least have that level of respect for each other, I wonder if perhaps our political discourse might in turn become more productive?
At any rate, I hope that everyone, everywhere in the United States, will at least set aside politics for the weekend and honor this nation’s veterans who have sacrificed so much. Many of us are still sacrificing. We live with the nightmares of the dead we carried to their final flight home, or with the fact that we lost families in part due to our service. Please consider that this weekend, even if you can’t consider it all the time.
To those I served with, I begged you to remember the things we went through together, and that bond should be enough to help us keep our respect for one another, even when we vehemently disagree.
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