FACISM ALERT

 This latest obscenity targeting Dr. Fauci is straight out of the Karl Rove handbook: The best way to assault a political opponent or someone who doesn’t support the cult, but is a decent person, is to determine their most admirable characteristic. Next, attack it by using paid deplorables. Then, have Fox news and other tawdry sources spend untold assets promoting the character assassination, over and over and over, until it becomes cult dogma and even tempts some decent people to succumb.

It worked on Senator John Kerry, who commanded a Swift boat in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. Yes, they defamed a sailor’s character for performing a highly dangerous mission on behalf of his country. And the sons of bitches got away with it.

They also condoned the tactic when used against John McCain, a Navy Aviator who suffered imprisonment for six years after the Vietnamese shot down his plane.

So, allow me to borrow a United States Navy expression those shipmates and I would use to say that, if you support demeaning the service a Swift Boat Commander or Naval Aviator for political purposes, you would suck shit scupper.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 SACRIFICE

 Folks, I am a veteran of the United States Navy. I served one year in Vietnam and the rest on a Navy vessel. I didn’t join the Navy because I sought adventure. I joined because the Draft Board told me that one more address change and they would send a squad for me. I picked the Navy because I loved it more than the others.

I entered a bitter enlistee and emerged one who loved both America and the Navy, despite the fact that many Americans didn’t love me. I know how it feels to be despised for your service.

I entered a profession and immediately became aware of the sacrifices I had made. Peers who never served had good jobs and let me know about it. My own brother-in-law told me that secretaries at the paper mill where he worked made more money than I.

But I progressed. So did my country. So did the attitude toward me and my brother and sister veterans.

Then.

I was disappointed when a major political party dishonored the service of Max Cleland who went to Vietnam with four limbs and returned with one.

I was dismayed when a major political party dishonored the service of John Kerry who drove river boats in the treacherous waters of Vietnam.

I was disgusted when a major political party dishonored the service of John McCain who spent six years in a brutal prison as a result of serving his country.

I was despondent when a major political party deemed me a “sucker-loser” and dishonored veterans who wore their country’s highest honor for bravery and sacrifice.

Now, I live in a state where not a single constitutional office holder deems my service honorable. This includes the service of those who served before, after, and with me, including those more than 50,000 whose names fill the most famous wall in Washington.

Does it make me want to give up?

Nah, it’s just, as someone once quipped, “Déjà vu all over again.”

It makes me want to serve. The old uniform wouldn’t fit, but this old Bosun’s Mate can still tie a clove hitch. It was once called the king of knots for its ability to hold when needed in a tight spot and released when needed elsewhere. In fact, a high accolade for a sailor ran, “He’s all in a clove hitch.”

I’m going to whip a hitch and join the ride. Come on along. I’ll tie one for you too. They deserve it.

Guilt

Sometimes I think I may have been a troublesome child. Then I see what has happened to other people’s children and I think I wasn’t too bad. It’s just that I always got caught doing things other kids and people were doing.

I could be the middle driver in a long lane of speeding vehicles. An officer will invariably pull alongside me, stop me, and let the others pass by laughing.

That’s why I’ve learned to be extra careful. I’m like the person who gets slapped in a sports contest. Should that person slap back, guess who the referee sees and upon whom shall the foul be called?

My younger brother understood this process to “the T.” He was a master at taunting me until Sainted Mother looked our way as I responded. He could play the injured party like a puppy spanked for chewing on your britches leg.

Of course, I never was one to respond to taunting unless there was an audience.

For educational purpose only, one of the best tactics in getting away with a transgression is to project that transgression upon your victim when you are caught. It’s easy, just place blame on the victim for doing what it was that you were doing.

“He was stealing my toys.”

“He called you an old fat cow.”

“He came up and tried to spray me with a water pistol. I was just watering your plants with mine.”

Evidently, according to the daily news, this is a tactic that remains with some of us throughout our lives.

Another tested and true tactic is what I call, “Going after your opponent’s strength.”

“He is so much bigger and stronger than me. Do you think I would start something?”

“You always said he was smart. Can’t you see how he talks me into doing something wrong?”

“So he gained a Purple Heart and a Silver Star, that means he had to cheat to get them.”

Oops. Got carried away. That’s enough for today.

A full heart ...

I never go out of my way to offend. Well, sometimes I veer that way, but, I hope, without malice. Today, though, my soul is too full. Please just give me some leeway for the outpourings of my heart at this moment.

First, let me say that I have had, and continue to have, close and dear friends on the other side of the political spectrum from me. I believe that they have sound beliefs and honest convictions. For example, concerns about the unbridled growth of government are valid, I believe. Also, I have found, during my professional career, that if one’s job is to write regulations, one tends to write regulations, whether they are needed or not. On the other hand, most agree with me that the climate is changing and that we need to address the issue.

So, we have many reasonable things to discuss rationally over a friendly beer or cup of coffee.

That stops, though, at some point. If one belongs to a political party that dishonors the military service of brave shipmates of mine like John Kerry or John McCain, then we have a problem, and I feel that I must acknowledge that, as I acknowledge the mendacity of my liberal colleagues who dishonor the brave police officers of our country.

I don’t support the morality of what John Kerry and John McCain were doing in Vietnam. Yet, while they were doing it, I was in the same military, doing exactly what my country told me to, at the same time, and close to the same place. I don’t support the morality of what my country had me doing, but, like those two heroes of mine, I did it because my country asked it of me. I didn’t think up the Vietnam War. Neither did John Kerry or John McCain. The Vietnam War was thought up by men who valued real estate above honor—men like Robert E. Lee. It was prosecuted by people like myself who believed service to their country shouldn’t be questioned.

So the two sailors did their duty. One survived the experience of war and went home. One had his plane shot down.  Both then achieved their moments of greatness. John Kerry spoke out against sending more of America’s finest young men and women to die in an unjust war. “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” he asked.

John McCain spent five and a half years being brutally treated in a prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam. At one point therein, he was offered the opportunity to go home, due to the fact that that he was the son of an admiral who served honorably in “the good war.” The publicity would have greatly enhanced the international status of his captors.

“No,” said John McCain, “Not unless you release the other prisoners as well.”

Vietnam veterans have become used to, over the years, a lack of gratitude from their country for the service to it during that miserable “police action.”

None were ready, however, for the sight of a political party saying that John Kerry and John McCain were deserving of shame for their service, Kerry because he spoke “truth to power,” and McCain because he was “shot down.”

I hang my head in shame over this. We all should.

I’m not asking my friends on the other side of the political divide to abandon the valid beliefs of their party. I’m asking them to root out the evildoers who have taken it over. Replace the odious serpents that have hijacked the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower. As the greatest of them said, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

It’s only a small step from the wrong side to the right side of history. Let us all believe again in honor above party, and let’s all go home together.