CLEANSING

 Seems I’m now the family patriarch. In a dream last night, someone asked me to form a short message of hope for the younger set in these troubled times. In the dream, I said, “What I offer is this: When I was born, one of the wickedest governments ever to sour the earth had turned my ancestral homeland into a cesspool of hate, murder, and carnage. In my lifetime, one lifetime, mind you, Germany transformed itself from a fanatical abscess on the body of humanity to a peaceful and prosperous country worthy of emulation. In our country, we now face primal deterioration. Our America is strong. We can learn from history and cleanse our nest. Let’s do so, and let’s not take an entire lifetime."

ENABLERS

 There have been evil people throughout history. There are evil people today. From the Nazi era, let us look at the case of Julius Streicher. From the “Holocaust Encyclopedia:”

“Trained as an elementary school teacher, Julius Streicher (1885–1946) was an early member of the Nazi Party. In 1923, he founded the virulently antisemitic and racist newspaper, Der Stürmer. Streicher was a leading organizer of Nazi Germany's first official nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933. Although Streicher had lost credibility in party circles by 1940, he continued to edit and distribute his antisemitic propaganda newspaper to hundreds of thousands of Germans.

For his influential role in inciting hatred and violence, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg indicted Streicher on count four, crimes against humanity. Streicher was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged on October 16, 1946.”

Streicher was not a Hitler, nor was he a Himmler or a Reinhard Heydrich. He never ordered the murder of innocents, nor did he belong to a police unit that carried out the orders.

He was what we call today an enabler and a propagandist.

We find his type in the thousands today in America from Franklin Graham to Sean Hannity to Tucker Carlson and the hardcore members of the so-called evangelical movement.

But what about the ones who simply listen and stay silent? Will those who finally clean up our mess force them to parade by the dead bodies like General Eisenhower did the neighbors of Dachau?

DEFEAT FASCISM

Journal of a Left-Wing Radical: Spent the evening watching a video about Blues Music in America. Of course it covered the enduring myth of the man who sold his soul to the devil in return for mastery of the guitar. This morning, my “hair shirt hour” featured reading Adam Smith on the development of currency. From Abraham's paying four hundred shekels of silver for the field of Machpelah to the modern evangelicals selling their decency for political power, we love the concept of bartering. This is true even though we’re not quite sure why Judas wanted his 30 pieces of silver. Sadly, we’re now bartering the life of our planet for a few generations of mobility and the fun it brings. And a cult is bartering the health of our children for the strained concept of “owning the libs.” When someone asks me why I accept being labeled a liberal, and thus “owned,” I’m reminded of the tale, a wonderful but likely apocryphal one, featuring Henry David Thoreau in jail for not paying his poll tax. According to the story, when friend Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Thoreau and asked why he was in jail, Thoreau is said to have responded, "Waldo, why are you not here?”

This draws one to the line from John Steinbeck’s "Sweet Thursday": “There are people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen".

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Journal of a Left-Wing Radical:

Watching a video of historian H.W. Brands, from the U. of Texas talking about his book on Ulysses S. Grant. He shared an interesting question he poses to a group of 18-19 year-old students: “What would make you go to war?” He admitted to a plethora of answers, and it made me think. Why did I?

Know what? It was my Sainted Mother. Anyone who has observed life at all knows how Southern boys are about their mommas. I know it figured as high as the rigging on a topmast in my decision.

I remember standing before the Great Tidepool near Monterey, California after a long walk from my Navy Base on the grounds of what was once the old Del Monte Hotel. In one pocket of a Navy Peacoat, I carried a letter instructing me how to begin an escape to Canada. In the other I carried orders for training as a member of U.S. Naval Security Forces at Da Nang, Vietnam. This meant I would carry a weapon for a year with the option of killing other human beings if ordered to.

I needed to decide that day.

That’s where Sainted Mother came in. Daddy? He didn’t care. He never thought I should have gotten involved in the military anyway, as if I had a choice.

SM wasn’t for war, but she disliked cowardice more. I remembered her words, “You don’t want to be like [unnamed relative]. They took him into the Army and he bawled and squalled and wet the bed until they sent him home.”

In the long run, I could not accept the fact that I might not ever see a woman with that kind of American spirit again.

She won.

Why would you go to war? Might better decide today for we are near one. The Forces of Darkness are closing in upon us fast.

I’ve decided. America took the place of Sainted Mother. Join me.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Journal of a Left-Wing Radical

Remember reading once (can’t verify the veracity)  that Archibald Alec Leach, a young performer, fashioned a persona for himself by mimicking a number of famous personages, one for voice, one for accent, one for bearing, and so forth. Whatever, it worked for the result known as Cary Grant.

I’ve been thinking. These increasingly seem to be the “end times” for the American Experiment. How would I like to be perceived as the final curtain falls? Let’s amalgamate the personages, real and fictional:

• -          The Andy Devine character of the “Happy Soldier” in the 1951 film version of “The Red Badge of Courage.”
• -          The unidentified character in the 1958 film “A Night To Remember” who, as the Titanic sinks, retires to the smoking room and calmly reads on a tilting deck.
• -          Joseph Campbell, the American scholar who once sought refuge at Woodstock, NY and read for five years.
• -          Bill Moyers, who produced the marvelous documentaries on Josehp Campbell and then on the song, “Amazing Grace.”
• -          The actor Keanu Reeves who appears, from all accounts, to be one hell of a great person.
• -          Liberace: A person highly skilled in his profession who never denied who he was and never took himself too seriously.
• -          Any journalist who saw early on that Donald J. Trump was a total fraud and grifter who had the magaligarch backing and degenerate moxie to destroy our country.
• -          Oh, best of all: Mr. Rogers, from one who will pass from this mortal coil wondering how the same country produced him and Cadet Bone Spurs.

Certified as Non-AI Generated and not ICE approved.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Journal of a Left-Wing Radical

No contacts yesterday. The imaginary basement of HC's pizza parlor is empty once again.

Mostly I spent the day in rapt confusion. See … I'm not the least bit confused about Donald J. Trump. Anyone who pays attention at least 30 minutes a week knew, by the end of 2020, that he was an unprincipled, depraved, opportunistic, greedy and gloated grifter unfit for any role of responsibility.

Enough for his good points.

The thing that troubles me is that I could name without wrinkling a brow at least 20 about whom I once trusted to be kind, generous, loving people who now fully support the machinations of the MAGA Cabal.

Most of these people claim Christianity as their cultural and moral base. Oh, they are not the Galilean Christians of years gone by. Lumped largely as "evangelicals," they are what I call "ABC" cult members, as in "Anti-Beatitude Christians."

They belong, mostly, to that lemming-like cohort of devotees who will follow the MAGA leaders over any cliff proposed. They now claim allegiance to the doctrine whereby 10,000 children may starve or die from polio if it would prevent a single same-sex couple who love one another from enjoying the legal sanctity of marriage.

Inexplicable ain't the word for it. But I miss our friendship.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 The “listen to” book for Bessie and me is now “The Ship That Wouldn't Die: The Saga of the USS Neosho- A World War II Story of Courage and Survival at Sea Paperback” – by Don Keith. It is another tale of great heroism, by my beloved Navy.

The name "Neosho" refers to a river in America. They named tankers like the Neosho after rivers for anyone thinking the name sounds Japanese.

Oddly, I’m finding it a precise allegory to our present condition in America. We are now experiencing the historical equivalent of the second wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The brave protests of last Saturday mirror the fury with which Americans responded to an attack on their country. Anchors Aweigh!

DEFEAT FASCISM

 It appears that people who love America are in for some rough times. A missive (Project 2025) written for a dictator in exile is now the operating manual for our country. (Yes, the similarities are devastatingly terrifying.) Will these times make us hate America the way our current leaders do? They don't have to. Let us consider other groups that have lived through hard times. There are several.

One includes our African American brothers and sisters. They descend from those who suffered the unimaginable effects of raw slavery here from 1619 until 1865, and economic slavery until now.

Do they hate America?

No, they have served honorably in every one of our wars since the one that freed them.

They have contributed to every aspect of story of America's greatness, including science, work, service, art, literature, and sports almost always without the recognition afforded their Caucasian kin.

Role models exist for us as the darkness descends. Let us draw strength from their bravery.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 A sad misconception these days is that there is a "depravity bottom." There isn't. When Donald Trump ridiculed a disabled reporter on national news, and his base expressed no concern, the word went out.

"We can get away with anything."

Later days proved it was true. The filth. The lies. The deaths from Covid 19. The felony convictions. Nothing moved the needle.

Now we see folks still in hopes that, somehow, he will perform a deed of such baseness that the ground will swell and burst beneath him. A "tipping point" will occur.

Ain't gonna happen.

There is no bottom.

"But the Epstein files," you say.

Truth is, if the Epstein files, once opened, contained a verified video of him abusing a 12-year-old while she screamed for her daddy, would he lose one vote from his extreme right-wing evangelical base? Would one Fox entertainment pundit suddenly have a "John Newton Moment?" Would one ultra-rich supporter cease donating? Would one right-wing think tank alter course. Would one hate-pod influencer shut up?

Sadly, possibly not.

He is their "flawed messenger," the one who brings them power and torments the ones they hate. The ends they seek justify the means he uses. Fear, hate, and greed sell better than grace, compassion, or good government.

We are stuck with him. Nations, like people, choose poorly at times.

DEFEAT FASCISM

One observer of the American experience believed that the “… the main reason for the quiet sway of religion over [America] was the complete separation of church and state.” This was Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1800s.

A modern writer believes that the current instability of our government derives from the meddling of a powerful religious cult—right wing evangelicals—into politics. This author, Tim Alberta, examines the cult thoroughly in “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism."

The book details the movement of vast numbers of so-called “Christians” who moved their emphasis from spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to spreading the power of a political party. It was not the Democratic Party.

No, in fact Alberta points out that one of the results of the right-wing evangelicals was to make the Galilean the “mascot of the Republican Party.’

Another delicious observation rests on how the cult achieved “The Christianization of Donald Trump.”

That was the trick of all political tricks. It rested on the mythology of “the flawed messenger.” They are quick to use King David as an example citing that even though he sent his best friend to die in battle because he, King David, could hook up with his friend’s wife, he nonetheless became a famous religious icon.

We should overlook the flaws of one who achieves  the goals that we seek.

Oh, so that would apply to President Bill Clinton as well, considering his dalliance in office while balancing the national budget and reducing the national debt.

“Oh no,” the evangelicals cry,” the flawed messenger” tribute only applies to Donald Trump among our presidents. Others can go to hell.

This is not the first book written about “the scorched-earth spirituality” of modern evangelicals. What makes it different is that the author is, himself, a born again evangelical. He mourns about what the right wingers have done to his church, crediting them with doing more than any group in making some Americans distrust Christianity and others despise it.

America is not the only institution in danger these days.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 If you aren’t concerned about the future of America right now you aren’t paying attention. You have to remember the Reichstag fire on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Some say a Communist set the fire. Some say the Gestapo set it.

It really doesn’t matter.

What matters how the Nazis benefitted from it. The day after the fire, at Hitler's request, President Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree into law. This law suspended most civil liberties in Germany, including habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly, and the secrecy of the post and telephone.

The event, some say, gave birth to the horror that was Nazi Germany.

Those in power in our country now have already started initiating the suspension of civil liberties mentioned. Will we allow the event in Los Angeles to accelerate the process?

Probably. America has entered a dark phase, and the forces of darkness are out-maneuvering the righteous.

It is time to begin finding hope and comfort in the beauty of a sunset.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 In 2024, an estimated 41.7 million Americans were receiving food stamps, also known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. This represents approximately 12.3% of theU.S. population.

Let’s suppose, just for fun, that someone on high directs us to find ways to reduce this number.

A Christian (one of the old love and grace ones, not one from a cult spreading a scorched-earth spirituality) might say, “Care and assistance,” then quote the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 25, verses 31-46.

A Capitalist might say, “Make them work,” although many do already and some are too young, except in my state where child labor is allowed.

A Teacher might say, “Education.”

A Sociologist might say, “Address the root causes of poverty.”

A Labor Organizer might say, “Address income inequality.”

A Billionaire might say, “Cut my taxes and I will help a bit.”

In the end, though, a psychopathic narcissist who became a millionaire when the doctor slapped him on his ass will say, “Cut the SNAP program out. That will get the number down.”

DEFEAT FASCISM

 The irony of hypocrisy can sometimes make one’s head swim. Consider the modern concept of the flawed messenger, also known as the “despite it all syndrome.” Due to it, a man lacking any semblance of moral character replaces the Galilean as the preferred savior of a large and powerful cult.

Why?

One wonders.  Actually though, it is not a modern concept. Messengers have often carried flaws. Consider the founder of nations who was quite ready to cut his son’s throat because a voice in his head told him to.

These days we would call that schizophrenia. Followers call it the anointing of a messenger.

Consider another king of a religious order who sent his best friend to die in battle because this leader wanted to hook up with his best friend’s wife. He was a king and kings don’t warrant the scrutiny afforded the lowly.

Back to the modern example, the “mind boggling” aspect of his worship is the hypocrisy.

He cheated on several wives, but he had Roe v Wade overturned.

He lies, cheats, blasphemes and even makes fun of a disabled man on national TV , but he spews venom on those his followers hate. He torments the same people his followers wish tormented and will be successful in marginalizing them and denying them their fair share of the American dream.

Okay, but what about Bill Clinton?

“On no,” they shout. He was just flawed. Not our messenger at all, despite any successes he may have enacted. Hardly a true messenger.”

But he admitted his sin and repented.

“See above.”

But his closest allies and followers denounced his actions.

“See above.”

But he made amends and has stayed married to the same person for over half a century,

”See above.”

One sighs and sits back to watch the show.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Many people admit to being a one-issue voter. They would canonize Hitler himself in support of that one issue. I'm not, but I understand how someone might be. We could call it selective reasoning.

One of the top single issues these days is, of course, abortion.

As I have stated before, I don't have standing to judge this issue. It represents an issue limited to the female of our species. She must make a decision based on a situation I can't even imagine, much less pass judgement on.

But let's say, for argument's sake, that I could. How would I face the complex factors associated with it?

First, I would redefine the problem to be one of unwanted pregnancies. The question of whether to abort or not seems, to me, to be a result of, not an initiating factor of, a pregnancy which a sister faces, but decides against, because of health, rape, incest, poverty, or lack of knowledge. This resides within a society that is currently exhibiting less care and comfort for life outside the womb.

I would tend to address the question of how to avoid unwanted pregnancies rather that making it a capital offense for a mother facing debilitating health issues or a 12-year-old rape victim to seek medical salvation.

Thus defined, sex education would seem appropriate. I have read that in Brahm's day, it wasn't odd for puberty to initiate in one's late teens. I have also read that dietary improvements have reduced that to early teens, meaning a child must deal with raging hormones for much longer periods of time. Wouldn't it be wise and merciful to elucidate them to the consequences?

Then there is the question of sperm-donor responsibility. Most abortion laws originate from all-male or nearly all-male legal bodies. As a result, males receive little or no burden due to unwanted pregnancies. This will be true as long as highways, trains, buses and airplanes offer males the opportunity flee from consequences in a matter not available to the female. The womb can't "hit the road a'running."

Yes, I am aware that the uniform application of sex-offender laws might be fatal to high school football in the United States, but it might go far in addressing the problem as I see it.

Then there is the matter of contraception. The ability to hold, in one's mind a negative attitude, simultaneously, against both abortions and contraceptives is one of the inexplicable mysteries of the human mind.

I would support placing health care, and its myriad complexities in the hands of those trained for the purpose.

Finally, I would urge that any deserted mother would know she had the full support of her brethren to make sure that a child in America will not be born into a world of shame, neglect, and abandonment.

Above all, it is not a matter for political grandstanding. Society blossoms when we join hands and reason together, not when we choose sides and fight.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 There used to be a time when disasters brought Americans together. In my lifetime, some have done so. I remember well the assassination of John Kennedy and how, for a time, we all mourned as a country, not as parties or sects. One of the most enduring memories is not of a talk show host mouthing insults but of young John Jr. saluting his father's coffin.

 Then there was the bombing of the federal building it Oklahoma City. As the dust settled over the carnage, President Bill Clinton offered soothing words that convinced us that we would prevail though the gates of Hell had opened to offer us a peak.

For years, disasters damaged us but created harmony. When one part of the country suffered, we all felt pain.

Then there was 9-11. For days we joined hands and resolved that we were one. Then, as the smoke cleared, someone saw an opportunity for partisanship. It took us to a strange place. It eventually led us to a war that unsettled a large part of the Middle East and we still search for ways to overcome the effects.

The awful experience of the Covid pandemic showed us that the forces of evil will utilize a natural catastrophe to divide good people. Americans died needlessly because of the divisiveness but a political party gained traction which now threatens to destroy the America that once mourned together. It's a damned shame. What would the Galilean say?

DEFEAT FASCISM

When you think about it, the extreme right-wing fundamentalist evangelicals may be headed into a box canyon, a positive sign in the long term. It's like this:

The rise of the MAGA cult has benefited in large part from the support of the fundamentalists. How did this happen?

From the book THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY by Tim Alberta, we learn that they blossomed due to first their religion, then from fear, and finally from hatred. It didn’t arrive through study and introspection. The willing derived it by being spoon-fed rations of fear. Evil influencers preyed on minds troubled by primal fears that their lives were not progressing as they had hoped. Their belief cohort might not sustain hegemony. Dread of becoming a minority gnawed at their equilibrium.   A huge crowd of anxious prospects awaited the new alter call.

Giving them the doubt that many feel moved by their religious fervor, how did they move from the Sermon on the Mount to support the attacking of the most cherished citadel in secular America, the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C? How did they come to support a presidential candidate marked chiefly as being totally devoid of decency or morality?

Seems the next step was fear, fear that some dark force was forcing Christians to abandon their most cherished beliefs. Some were not long held. Abortion, for example, did not become a politically charged issue in the United States until the 1970s and 1980s, primarily due to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Someone saw it as wedge issue to be exploited, despite it's not being mentioned in the New Testament and only by enhancement of vague passages in the old, such as Psalm 139:13-16, which describes God's presence in the womb, suggesting to some the sacredness of life from conception.

From there it became a foundational “fear stone” in the movement of fundamentalism from religion to politics.

Gun control formed another support. Although if allowed, some Americans would vote to rescind the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, there has never been a serious suggestion by any politician or person of power. It has become, nonetheless, an issued laced with almost rabid vitriol.

Then came sexual orientation and those who are not avowed heterosexuals.

Next, the “least of those among us,” demeaned as non-producers.

Then came immigrants forced to leave their homes due to warfare among cartels battling for supremacy in meeting the insatiable demand for drugs by Americans.

Then they moved to honest, decent Americans, not excluding Jimmy Carter, Anthony Fauci, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama and family, not to mention Joe Biden.

Then anyone who spoke on behalf of supporting the planet.

Then all Democrats and anyone labelled a "liberal." They don't ascribe the word to a supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare. They refer to those who dare provide love and grace to "the least of those among us."

The fear and hate didn’t arise from a study of scripture, it came from pulpits, first for monetary reward and then for political power, usually for both. Far too many ministers found, that for personal reasons, the rewards of fear and hate far outweighed the rewards of love and grace.

Each year demands a new set of monsters bent—according to right-wing evangelist ministers, Fox News, and political operatives—on taking away evangelicals' freedom to practice their religion. Each step moves the group of monster/victims closer to average Americans. This includes our friends and neighbors, particularly mainline Christians who still spread the love of Jesus and don't mix it with politics. All of us are in danger. After all, the hate mongers must have new fuel with which to replenish their demand for fear.

In short, they will run out of sujets de haine, subjects of hatred.

Where can they turn, then, but to themselves? Rember the Nightof the Long Knives?

DEFEAT FASCISM

 There is a scene in the film version of Red Badge of Courage—the one starring Audie Murphy—in which the actor Andy Devine plays a character called “The Cheery Soldier.” It is an odd scene. During a frantic battle, the protagonist (Murphy) runs away. He joins a sad caravan of defeated and dying men. That night, lost and bewildered, he encounters the Devine character who exudes joy and hope, leading the young man back to his unit. Next day, he performs bravely and becomes a hero.

The allegorical example of heroism born of positivity and duty is so inimical to the standard thirst for revenge and power that it makes one tremble.

This echoes the New Testament account of Paul and Simon “locked in jail” as accounted in Acts 16-25-26:

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

Perhaps we could all learn from these examples, those of us who believe that the forces of darkness have descended upon America. They have won. There is no doubt. The depravity of their actions has served to prove that there is no limit to what their followers will tolerate. Now they are "rubbing it in." What can we, the losers, do?

Maybe quit trying logic and anger and become the “cheerful losers.” Perhaps a display of what we consider righteousness, displaying how that makes us cheery instead of argumentative might work to make the prison doors fly open.

Who knows? It might, in some redeemable soul, cause a moment of “winner’s remorse.” If we are cheery with loss, might they develop some sense of over-optimism about the value of what they have won?

After all, they are so fond of the scriptures. Isn’t it written “ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

It is indeed, in Mark 8:36

DEFEAT FASCISM

 The Three Rs to defeat fascism: READ REBUKE RESIST

Today: Read. Last time we read the Sermon on the Mount. Next suggestion. Stay in the Gospel of Matthew. This time go to the 25^th Chapter, verses 32 through 46. This spells out exactly what the Galilean thought about righteousness and it is pretty much the opposite of the new rulers of America preach. Stay on the path. You will block the fascists and annoy the hell out of MAGA evangelicals.

WRONG PROBLEM

 Peter Drucker, known as the "father of modern management," once said something to the effect that a manager who makes the right decision on the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who makes the wrong decision on the right problem. Just imagine the bull who, upon being forced into the ring, goes into decision-mode and decides that his problem is that little red cape, then makes the right decision therefor.

It dawned on me that many are wrestling with the wrong problem while attempting to understand what happened last Tuesday. They pose it as, "They watched her speak and him speak and made the decision based on what they saw, deciding to vote for him. What a problem."

I don't think that's what happened.

I don't think they ever saw or heard her speak in an unedited manner. I'm afraid that the bulk of Americans now get their vote-forming information from the following:

• Entertainment venues posing as news centers,
• Social media posts governed by algorithms that concentrate on desired outcomes,
• Evangelical pulpits,
• Church deacons, and
• Families and friends.

If they should happen to encounter dissonant facts, the result would resemble the scene in the original Star Wars film. Here's how it would go.

"I have found facts that don't agree with what you are saying."

Hand gesture: "These aren't the facts you're looking for."

"These are not the facts I'm looking for."

Conclusion: It's impossible to change an opinion with facts or logic when that opinion wasn't formed with facts or logic.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 WORDS

 When our plane landed at the San Bernadino airport upon returning from that “conflict overseas” they held us on board for a briefing. The gate leading out to transportation was a short walking distance away. There we could start our journey home.

A crowd of war protesters stood just outside, and we were to ignore them. There had been violence on occasion. "Don’t return from a war zone to die in America."

They just yelled at us. I remember “warmonger” and, most of all “baby killer.” Know what? Didn’t bother me. I was so glad to feel the soil of my native country under my fee that they could have called me Nazi (maybe they did) and I would have walked on by. I did.

Know what really bothers me, though? What makes my heart ache and my soul cry?

It’s not when I hear the words “sucker-loser.” I’m beyond caring.

It’s when I realize that those calling me a sucker-loser include some whom I thought, ten years ago, were decent, caring, compassionate friends. People whom I would have trusted to care for an aging parent. People who believed in America. People who supported the rule of law. People who revered the U.S. Constitution. People who respected a peaceful transfer of government. People who didn’t think that making America great would necessitate the overthrowing of every great attribute she had ever shown. People who cared about the “least of those among us.”

Somewhere and somehow they turned. They now hate everything I’ve learned to love since that plane touched down so many years ago.

That’s what made me take my Honorable Discharge from the wall and hide it away.