Last week was a rough week so I am happy to enjoy a great weekend with my wife. We hiked at Eagle Creek, got Smoothies and explored a local park in Westfield where we saw three Turkey Vultures enjoying the remains of a rodent of some kind for breakfast. We watched the Irishman, which was amazing though an investment of times (3.5 hour movie). Also cooking, cleaning, shopping and I made a killer brisket that I hope I can remember the ingredients I put in my rub. I am refreshed, but last week was tough.
It was tough for a few reasons, the anniversary of Linda's death is always something that haunts me, less each year but the letter came that her murderer will again not be released a few days prior. Tough because starting Religious School online meant being prepared for the various glitches that can occur when using technology, a technology on the first day of school for many failed. Tough because the patterns of moving through the calendar have changed a lot and everything seems to be happening either at warp speed or a snail's pace. And then there was the surprises.
Saturday, August 29, I learned my Uncle Joe had passed. He was 86, lived a good life, and while I no longer have a connection to my family since my mother's death, I remember him from my childhood. He was a jovial man, married to my mother's more serious sister, my memory of him was of a big kid who truly enjoyed having us around as we would see them twice a year. One thing I remember is he had a slot car race track that I loved to play with. I may not be remembering that correctly, but I remember him teaching me how to slow down in the turns so my car didn't go flying into the living room. I will always remember him as a working class kind of guy just having fun and getting along.
Now our family back then was tighter. On my dad's side there was my Aunt Mary, her kids were all adults, some as old or close to my parents age. I called a lot of them Aunt and Uncle out of respect, but they were all cousins. A lot of my second cousins were my age. But I knew several of my dad's brothers as well, my real uncles. If I didn't know them personally I knew of them. Family reunions brought a few together.
What was special about that generation of men and women that came of age in the middle part of the 20th century was war. Reading his obituary I learned my Uncle Joe was a decorated soldier from the Korean War. I knew my dad, who served for 25 years in the army and fought in Europe and shipped to the South Pacific in World War II and later was wounded and captured in Korea served. Last year to prepare for our trip to Normandy I reread the story of my Uncle Bill , my dad's brother, who helped clear the beach as his battalion was charged to do. Given a citation by General Eisenhower, my Uncle, my Dad and two other uncles, the two who I was named after, fought in the war. As I stood in one of the cement pill boxes last year and thought how brave those men must have been as they cleared the deadly obstacles from the beachfront, I wondered if I would have been brave enough to do what so many people did to save the world from the tyranny of fascism.
So when The Atlantic published their article about how President Trump sees veterans and members of military as losers and some how dumb for fighting for the country I had a visceral reaction. I have never been a fan of war. I don't romanticize the fighting as in Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori I find myself more in Wilfred Owen's camp on this. But people died, some came home wounded, many came home changed forever and it didn't stop. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror have all lead to more and more people who have lost their lives, lost their limbs and some lost their souls to the horrors of war. So when the President doesn't see them for what they are, heroes, we must questions what is important to a President who wraps himself in the flag and claims liberals want to end America.
Now some might say the whole story is made up. The original story was sources with 4 different people making the accusations and then confirmed almost immediately with two independent sources and later more news agencies found sources willing to confirm parts of the article. It is common that people working in government will talk to reporters anonymously. In fact we have discovered many scandals that way, including Watergate. While all those sources could be making up the same story, sharing it among themselves, and telling reporters that would be incredibly risking for them. How would it come up? How would Pentagon and former government officials do that without at least one breaking ranks? What would be the upside? Also reporters don't tend to make up stories like this and then get it confirmed by rival media, in this case including Fox News. In fact, when reporters have reported distorted or made up facts they created, they are often caught in the process of others trying to confirm.
Trump has a history of being anti-military and through his own words or people close to him we have learned that he has called the late Senator John McCain a loser on many occasions. He disparaged Senator Tammy Duckworth referencing her limbs lost fighting in Iraq. He said he knows more than the generals in relation to the war on terror and he has offended Gold Star and Blue Star families several times. The story trends with who Trump has always been.
What is interesting to me is how it is framed. That the people who join the military or those who couldn't get out of being drafted are losers and stupid is similar to the depiction of Don Corleone's reaction to his son joining the military in the book about the mob family in The Godfather. The Don, like Trump, sees no upside to military service and when his son makes Life Magazine as a hero, he says "he does those miracles for strangers". President Trump's bottom line has always been like Don Corleone, he will do things only if he sees a return for himself personally. But unlike the Don who was motivated, in part, by love of family and culture. Trump is motivated by himself. Since the 1980s, Trump has always appeared to be trying to live up to the Hollywood version of a tough guy and thus used mob bosses as a template. It is how he would operate in business, trying to find ways to cheat the people he hired. His charities and other businesses, now apparently including his campaign and inaugural committees were just another way for personal gain. So it makes sense he would see a selfless act like joining the military as a foolish one.
We will see if people go on the record with this. We will see if people will further confirm his alleged disgusting attitude toward veterans and active duty members. We will see if it may change his behavior moving forward. Or conversely we will see if people who serve or did serve the government made this up (because there is no way at this point that a single reporter did). The thing is all those things are bad for the President. But worse for our country.
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