DEFEAT FASCISM

 Institutions don’t represent a monolithic community. Consider:

He came from the same America as I.

He enjoyed the same advantages as I.

He went through the same Navy Bootcamp as I.

He took the same oath as I.

He served in the same unit as I. In fact, he often stood watch in the next outpost. He chowed in the same mess hall as I. He knew the Vietnamese mothers in the adjacent village craved oranges for some reason connected with dietetic deficiencies, as did I. He was able to pilfer oranges from daily meals the same as I.

I would sometimes bring them and pitch them over the concertina wire to begging mothers wanting them for their babies.

He would taunt them and burst oranges on the street that separated our compound from the village of Tien Sha.

So when people ask me if I understand that there are Vietnamese Veterans, just like me, that worship fascism and vote for the most depraved man ever to run for office in my country, I must say I’m not surprised.

Neither veterans nor alumnae represent monolithic groups

For example: Harvard University graduated:

 John Adams

John F. Kennedy

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Barack Obama

T. S. Eliot.

But also:

Ted Kaczynski

Ted Cruz

Tom Cotton

Stephen K. Bannon

Jeffrey Skilling

The religion we call Christianity produced Jimmy Carter and Pope Francis, but also Jim Bakker and Paula White.

The United States Supreme Court produced Ruth Allen Ginsberg and Clarence Thomas.

Perhaps we should stop seeking validation through groups and look within ourselves. Ideas produced by groups tend to diverge.