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.

VIRTUE

 This morning as Bessie Smith the Rescue Dog and I rambled, we listen to “Cannery Row,” by John Steinbeck. It was perhaps my thirtieth encounter, but she likes fiction, so we reconnected. Came across a phrase I had forgotten: “Misunderstood Virtues.”

Wow. Got me to thinking. As I have said before, I’ll never understand why they say I have a derangement syndrome because I don’t think, for among many reasons, that the grifter that dishonored the military service of John McCain should even be imagined as the president of my beloved country.
Here’s the thing. I don’t honor what Lt. Col. McCain was doing when they shot him down. He was following orders. They were evil orders but that’s what his country asked him to do and he had taken that oath. For the next six years, however, he served with as much dignity and patriotism as one could ask. He was the very picture of a virtuous individual.
It’s the same with Jane Fonda. I don’t respect what she did, but she did it for a defensible reason. I hold no lingering hatred. After all, hers wasn’t the greatest sin associated with that miserable war. Trust me.
Virtues, in my opinion, are complex. That’s why we should read, and why we should think about what we read.
Today we might remember that 161 years ago, the United States Army was within a few days of ending the institution of slavery, with all its sickening manifestations, in our country. There were those among both the victorious and the vanquished who felt they were operating within the most glorious of virtues.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 POLITICAL CHOICES

Yesterday Donald J. Trump, on video, desecrated the flag of the United States of America. He took a large pen and appeared to have signed his name to our flag.

According to section 8 of the U.S Flag Code, "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature." While there are no penalties or violations for breaking the U.S. Flag Code, its terms detail that "it is important to respect the guidelines as a sign of patriotism and respect for the country."

His act bothers me, especially in light of the fact that a professional athlete’s career perished in flames when he knelt while someone was singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” an act presumably protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

This is the latest in a long series of acts dishonoring our country and its vets performed by Donald J. Trump. The intent seems to be simply proving that he can do it and maintain the support of his base.

Which brings me to the question of his base and its composition. This base of supporters goes far beyond the normal image one has of rednecks in pickups whose only dream is to own a 50-Caliber machine gun for “deer hunting.” The base goes far beyond people who disapprove of abortions but don’t accept the fact that sex education, freedom from poverty, male responsibility, and contraception might be more humane and effective methodologies than imposing the death penalty on women and physicians who seek legitimate treatment for a woman’s health.

No, a heartbreaking fact is that his supporters include many people whom I once considered friends, some close, some very close. These are friends with whom I shared dreams, discussed the greatness and challenges of America, and whom I would have trusted with my most cherished possessions.

These are people who taught our children. People who cared for our infirm. People who provided succor for the “least of those among us.” One even preached, from a pulpit, the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now they proudly claim they will vote for a man who publicly ridiculed the disabled among us.

Now they proudly claim they will vote for a man who dishonored John McCain, who spent six years in a tortuous prisoner of war camp for our country.

Now they proudly claim they will vote for a man who teaches them to despise veterans who have served our country, calling those who died doing so, “losers and suckers.”

Now they proudly claim they will vote for a man who incited a rabid crowd to attack our nation’s Capitol wherein they harmed police officers and defecated on the hallowed floors and walls of our country's most cherished building.

In short, they proudly claim they will vote for him no matter what.

Where I come from, they call that, “Selling your soul to the Devil.”

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.

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.

On Heroes …

Please forgive me if I take a lengthy break today. I feel I must say something about Senator John McCain while he lives. After that, I will observe the ancient mandate, De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.

John McCain is the son of a Four-Star Admiral of the World War Two era. John Sr. was the leader of the Fast Carrier Attack Force that once battled a much larger enemy fleet heroically and famously in the Pacific Theater. He also appears, if one knows where to look, in the famous photograph of the signing of the surrender documents by the Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Navy Secretary James Forrestal said of him, “He was a fighting man all the way through.”

The junior John received an appointment to Annapolis due to his father’s service and influence and completed the four years. His was a checkered performance and might have ended without a commission had he not been an admiral’s son.

Being in good physical shape, he qualified as a Naval Aviator, flying from the USS Oriskany (CV-34) in the South China Sea.

Here is where I want to express my feelings. On October 26, 1967 John McCain was flying a bombing mission, his 23^rd, over selected sites in Hanoi Vietnam. He was following orders issued by the military command of the United States of America. Whether he fully agreed with those orders is a matter that only he knows.

I question them. This was an unprovoked and savage attack upon a nation that had done no harm to our country. Oh, there was a trumped-up (good word these days) charge that one of their boats had fired a round at one of our warships in the Gulf of Tonkin but I don’t think a single serious historian believes that happened as reported, or, if it did, justified the millions of deaths that followed.

Certainly, the women and children who were victims of John McCain’s bombs had done nothing to deserve the horrible, blistering, firestorm that his bombs created.

Whether one supports the war or not, John McCain, on that day was flying his A-4E Skyhawk directly into fire from an anti-aircraft battery. Incoming fire hit his aircraft and he had to bail, injuring himself severely in the process. Captured, he was paraded through the streets of Hanoi and humiliated by the victims of his bombing. The Vietnamese took him to a notorious prison, called “The Hanoi Hilton.” There he remained, untreated and tortured.

A month later, I arrived in Da Nang, South Vietnam as a war-giver, certainly not at the scale and grandeur of a naval aviator, but as one who followed the orders of my country, the same as John McCain.

On the second day in country, I received orders to escort a Vietnamese woman and her baby to the Sick Bay on base. Wanting to make sure I understood why she was there, she removed bandages from her child’s face and I saw nothing but raw blisters and scabs where a baby’s face should have been. One dark and bottomless eye, surrounded by raw flesh, looked at me in bewilderment. I still see it sometimes late at night.

That’s what happens when the bombs fall on the innocents. That’s what made me hate war as anything more than an absolute last chance at survival.

But, I followed orders for the next 12 months, doing some things I’d rather not talk about and others that still make me smile. I spent two more years in the service afterwards and then went into a professional civilian job, an adventure about which I am currently reporting. In 1972. I met a young girl with long reddish hair, a mind like a polished diamond, a smile that could melt steel, and a figure that could make a monk do a double-take.

On August 17, 1972, we had a modest but marvelous wedding with friends and relatives in attendance. Then we left on our honeymoon.

On that date, John McCain remained in the Hanoi Hilton, lacking medical care for his injured body and suffering repeated torture. My new wife and I were in Aspen Colorado enjoying life. Our families waited at home, anxious to hear about the trip. John McCain’s family continued to hope for his release.

 I’m not sure where Donald Trump was on that date. I’m sure he was having fun with whatever trophy-wife he enjoyed at the time. He had avoided the whole military thing. His career, too, had been boosted by his father, not by his father’s service to our country, but by his father’s money.

John McCain stayed in prison, loyal to the country on whose behalf he had landed there. On one occasion, he was offered release, the Vietnamese believing that positive publicity awaited the release of an admiral’s son. McCain refused the offer unless all his fellow prisoners went home as well.

More time passed. In 1973, the inmates of the Hanoi Hilton were finally released. McCain later became a respected United States Senator and ran an honorable, but unsuccessful presidential campaign against Barack Obama.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump, a draft-dodger, insulted the service of John McCain, saying that he (Trump) preferred military heroes that “didn’t get captured.” For this sin, and similar behavior, we elected him president of the United States of America.

This week, as John McCain faces death from cancer, another of Donald Trump’s staff demeaned a statement from Senator McCain, saying that it didn’t matter because “he was dying anyway.” Donald Trump has not disowned it as of yet, nor, I imagine, will he. Oh well, when a worm challenges a mountain, the butterflies must flutter and laugh.

Here’s what I think:

- I don’t agree with what John McCain and millions of us were ordered to do.

- I believe we were of the post WWII generation that believed in duty to our country uber alles.

- I believe we served faithfully and thanklessly in a misguided war, perhaps making us “The Greatest Generation.”

- I believe that our country never forgave us for our service, as witnessed by the lack of a national uproar when people like Donald Trump, and his sort, besmirch the heroic service of brothers like John McCain and John Kerry.

- I believe Americans will pay a dreadful price for our misguided blindness.

Today I’m ashamed. Tomorrow I’ll press on, having said my piece.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

William Shakespeare – Henry V