But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. Abraham Lincoln The Gettysburg Address
After I digested the Atlantic reporting on Trump’s obscene blasphemy towards the wounded and dead US service members who have served this country, I roused myself and wrote a rather outraged article, and I thank all who read it. But after I finished the article, while we were waiting for our Super Chimi’s to come out of the oven, Teri and I just sat around and talked.
What did we talk about? Well, we talked about her Great Uncle Bernie, who served in the US Navy in WWII. When she asked him one time as an adult why he drank so much, he replied, So that I don’t have to remember. He never spoke in detail about his wartime service. We spoke of my uncle Kenneth, who died in a jeep accident in Germany while on active service. We spoke about her ex husband Stretch, who served 20 years in the Air Force before retiring, including deployments to South Korea, and Thailand, although officially, he was never actually in Thailand in the first place. And we talked about my great uncle, who had gone down on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
And that’s when it hit me. And why I didn’t write. I didn’t want this to b a an angry diatribe about the Orangutan in Chief, it wanted it to be a sober discourse. So I waited. And now I’m ready.
Because I realized that Teri and I were not the only ones having this conversation. When Trump denigrated and insulted the sacrifices of the US military, and their families, he literally touched almost every family in America. And yes, since the US went to a voluntary military in the mid 70’s, which personally I thought was a mistake, fewer and fewer American families have had the experience of having active service military personnel in their lives. Right now, there are at least a couple of generations of kids who have grown up without knowing a single active duty military personnel, or a veteran.
But they’re there! There are uncles, great uncles, fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers and grandmothers, all who put their lives aside and wrapped themselves in the cloth of this country, and served with pride, dignity, and honor. And they’re remembered. Their stories and exploits are told and retold at family gatherings, they are a treasured and honored part of the fabric of the family history. And Trump just denigrated that.
That is what is so devastating about these revelations showing that the Commander in Chief of the United States has nothing but disdain and disgust for the people who serve under him, and all of the ones that came before. For 244 years, this country has respected and revered the sacrifice, all to often the ultimate sacrifice of those who came before us that made this grand experiment possible in the first place. And Trump just shit all over it.
You think there might be a whole generation of late teen and post teen voters, who might not actually give a shit about politics, who become activated when they hear their parents, and aunts and uncles talking about Trump throwing shit all over the sacrifices of Uncle Ernie, or Grandpa Horace, and decide they have to make a stand? Trump didn’t just denigrate the sacrifices of veterans and fallen heroes, he turned a fire hose of scorn on the entire founding ethos of service and sacrifice upon which this entire nation is built. And in my heart I have to believe that there will be a payback for that, or the entire American Experience has been for nothing. News Flash for Il Douche, there’s a perfectly good reason why we celebrate Memorial Day every year, and the same thing goes for Veterans Day too. And it’s something that you’ll never comprehend or understand. As Shakespeare once quoth, be gone, damn spot!
Long ago (early 1960’s) in College, a Prof. told me “Going into the military in WWII, we all signed blank checks to the the Government and the Government promised they’d do right by us in return.” The point at the time was why the VA Hospitals system, which was then a shining example of quality care, existed. There aren’t many (any?) now in Government who seem to follow that promise.
The VA goes back to the Civil War – veterans got treatment, even long-term care, there. A lot of VA locations have national cemeteries nearby.
There are a helluva lot of people who have veterans in their families, whether living or dead, and we’re *pissed*. Because we know what they did, and why they didn’t necessarily talk – my father was stationed in the US, and he didn’t talk about it, either.
I could produce a list of people in my extended family tree who served, and Himself still wouldn’t understand. Some of them are in Arlington, for one or another reason – one retired as a Lt Col in the Army Corps, and he started out as enlisted, one of three who made it to officer. One is the grandfather of a niece by marriage – he was shot down over Guadalcanal and brought back after the war. Most of the other dead aren’t buried in military cemeteries.
My late grandfather who served in WWII earned four Bronze Stars that none of us knew about until we were going over his effects after he died. He got a military sendoff at the cemetery, completely with a gun salute.
My anger got the better of me many times since the story in The Atlantic broke, including during the writing of a piece in which I was way wrong in how I interpreted an interview I saw on TV. Luckily someone more level headed caught it and since even last night my anger was so high I decided to mostly be silent today. I will say a couple of things however.
I agree with you about the move to an all volunteer service. All of the military service and sacrifice has been born by a tiny sliver of our population and far too many people are disconnected from it other than stories about grandpa or grandma – and I suspect young people are no different than any generation in that their eyes often (invisibly) glaze over and one of those cartoon bubbles with “Zzzzzzzz” opens up in their brains. Maybe, hopefully they will think a bit and maybe ask some questions of their elders.
Second, you mentioned Memorial Day. Having worked for a time in the cemetery field I can assure you that throughout the country Memorial Day is THE day. The one where more people visit loved ones than any other day. More than Easter and Mother’s Day combined! So, at least among older voters which are the most reliable voting block this story will park deep in their minds.
I also think back to the conventions, and Gettysburg being floated along with OUR White House as Trump’s venue. I can’t help but wonder if Gettysburg was proposed by someone else besides Trump, and at least once Trump shooting it down for the same thing he said about my brother Marines at rest as Aisne Marne, next to Belleau Wood where they fought so fiercely they were given a nickname by the German troops even civilians know – Teufelhunden, or in English Devil Dogs and Trump not just thinking but saying something similar to what he said in France – a I don’t want a bunch of losers who died as a backdrop for my big moment type of thing.
Finally, as awful as I felt inside when it became apparent Trump would “win”, at least in the EC which is all that matters I was grateful my dad, badly wounded on a bombing mission in WWII wasn’t alive to see it. Given how long people on his side of the family usually live it wasn’t crazy that he would have made it to his late 90s had he not gotten lung cancer and died in 1980. He was no liberal, but Trump being President would I know have killed him. He was haunted by what he’d done in WWII, and what he might have had to do had Japan not surrendered but somehow found something inside to keep going each day. Trump winning would have broken whatever that was. Like me he’d have felt his service didn’t mean a goddamned thing. Not in a country where sixty million people would vote for Donald fucking Trump.
My 95 year old mother became fatally ill on the day of tRump’s Inauguration Abomination. A WWII vet who used the GI bill to earn her Master’s degree in Economics – she cried on the night of the stolen election. She said the world had gone to war to stop Hitler – and then America voted for him.
i also disagreed with the switch to all-volunteer. It means that today’s military is not as representative of a cross section of America as it used to be. Although some join to serve, or because of family tradition or other reasons, the all volunteer aspect means that the military became the economic safety net of last resort for too many, like my brother. Military recruitment ads acknowledged this sad fact with the emphasis on the military providing a job and skills that would be marketable after leaving the military. Or sometimes the ads appealed to glamour and excitement, “Join the Navy. See the world.” My brother saw precisely three places in twenty years: Japan, Somalia and Oceanside, California. We still need to recognize that the military is also a major path for minorities to get ahead.
With the relatively new “thank you for your service” PC, we tend to forget that for a long time, the military was not held in very high regard. When someone says that piece of PC to me, I stifle the urge to respond, “yeah, sure,” and usually say nothing. For me, I joined to get access to a special cross-branch training that put me on the path to the diplomatic corps, a totally utilitarian reason. Studies have found that motivations are mixed. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/04/27/studies-tackle-who-joins-the-military-and-why-but-their-findings-arent-what-many-assume/
I joined at a relatively older age. I got turned down for OCS at 26 (wanted to fly) but went ahead and enlisted. With a perfect score on the ASVAB (a joke – especially compared to the Naval Air Test) the recruiters flipped out when I insisted on infantry. Knowing about OCS they had visions of me going into one of the hard to fill M.O.S slots in the Air Wing and getting some attention that would help their own careers. But during that year (1983) the Platoon Leader’s Class at SIU-Carbondale (it’s a sort of Marine version of ROTC – you go through Quantico in the summer and get commissioned once you get your degree & then head off to the six month Basic School) had accepted me as one of their own. And the barrack’s bombing in Beirut happened right at the time I got turned down for OCS so I refused to consider anything but infantry. Serving back then, when Vietnam was still very much on people’s minds was as you say a different time and people often reacted very differently to people in the service than has been the case since 911. Thank you for your service was seldom heard. More often one would get a certain look from strangers, or even acquainances back when I went home. The only h.s. reunion I went to was my 10th and believe me I got a lot of questions along the lines of “Why would you join the Marines?” and not in a positive sense.
Funny, but many of those same people are hard core MAGAts these days. Frankly a “Thank you for your service” from one of them is insulting because they say it to someone like me who they actually despise because I’m not a conservative (much less a Trump supporter)
– but they have to play act some measure of “respect” to save face of some sort.
While some who say it are truly sincere, like you I know damn well that many who say it are like the checkout clerk at some store who’s been on his or her feet for eight hours, has a ton of personal worries on their minds and wonders every night how they will manage to get by and care for their families says “Have a nice day” because that’s protocol handed down by their bosses. IOW it’s a rote phrase that they say without even thinking. Like a computer giving a programmed response such as “enter password.” I’ll be honest here. I’ve often felt like the pre 911 generation of troops, and to some degree even pre first Gulf War are the “don’t really matter” crowd. It even shows up in federal hiring bias. Automatic points (literally) for post 911 people and nothing for folks of my era on active duty that didn’t meet a very specific and small set of criteria that few people met in that era.
I’ve met and talked with many a post Vietnam to first Gulf War veteran who feels like the forgotten/ignored generation of troops. That if you served in that period it doesn’t really “count” and that’s true even of those who found themselves in hot spots where there was shooting and dying. We have the post 911 troops, and even those who served during Vietnam finally got some belated (and embarrassed) thank you sentiments but there’s quite the number of years and troops who so many Americans barely, if at all think about.
I really can’t wrap my mind around this. How can Trump be so warped and callous? The Gettysburg Address, how could he not know those words? Too, how could he say the words he said and not know they would be repeated? Stupid and evil. That is a good chunk of this country, because the fascist don’t care what he says as long as he is a racist. Do they think their fellow citizens will not remember?
ESPECIALLY in the voter blocs where he needs to prevail.
My part of the world, you’ve got SOMEBODY in your family who served, even if you gotta go back about two, three generations. That’s a LOT of families right there and don’t get me started on the immigrant kids who served this country for a chance at citizenship. He really stepped in it this time.
Sorry. Gonna have to disagree with everyone thinking the all-volunteer military is bad because, for the vast majority of this country’s history, that’s EXACTLY how this country’s military operated. The American Revolution didn’t have a “professional” army. Even during the Civil War, the majority of the fighting was done by volunteers (folks might want to look up the history of the New York City draft riots in 1863). And, even after the Selective Service System was first instituted during WW1, we NEVER had a “professional” military in which EVERYONE served. Let’s not forget here: Trump was draft-eligible during the Vietnam War but avoided it from the “bone spurs” so, obviously, there’s never been a time in this country’s entire history when everyone was REQUIRED to serve.
And, as far as dana fairfield’s contention about the unfairness of the all-volunteer service’s being “that the military became the economic safety net of last resort for too many,” that, unfortunately, is a straw man argument. THE ENTIRE HISTORY of the US military has led to its being an economic “last resort” for many people–especially minorities. Even disallowing the unfairness inherent in the draft (folks in the lower economic brackets were far more likely to be caught up in the draft than those in higher economic brackets), what “professional” military people we’ve had in this country have generally come from the military academies (like West Point and the Naval Academy or college-style military schools like the Citadel and Virginia Military Institute) rather than being conscripted (which is basically what “universal military service” is).
Additionally, until ALL Americans are expected to fulfill a “universal military” duty, you run the risk of other problems. Women, for instance, are STILL not legally required to register with Selective Service (if an 18 year old man fails to register with the Service, he can forget about any number of things–almost no chance for student loans, absolutely no chance of getting a government job*–while facing potential jail time; an 18 year old woman, on the other hand, can get government-backed student loans, apply for government-backed housing, get hired with a government agency). Certainly, there’s no law preventing a woman registering with Selective Service but, as far as the Feds are concerned, they may as well toss confetti in the air. And, we’ve seen how–for decades now–the military has NOT exactly been a hotbed of independent political thought. They’ve fallen hook, line and sinker for right-wing Republican propaganda and junior ranking members have faced harassment for daring to challenge the status quo. The military has, despite 70 years of racial integration, seen widespread hostility towards people of color (racial slurs, targeted racial hostility, white power slogans and symbols, etc). Women in the service continue facing sexual harassment from, even being killed by, their “fellow” servicemen. Gays, lesbians, transgender individuals? Well, the brass may say there’s no problem, the rank-and-file seem to be having a slight difference of opinion (more of the standard “I don’t care who he sleeps with but I’ll break his f***ing skull if he comes on to me” behavior).
I’m frankly tired of the military mythologizing that’s become so common over the last 2 decades (especially following 9/11 and all the rah-rah, especially with sporting events–the whole flag crap that got Kaepernick into such hot water was the result of that post-9/11 military-athletics-entertainment blather; of course, Brokaw’s whole “greatest generation” crap was the kick start for it). Their “service” is seldom any worse in nature than that of the police or fire fighters yet you don’t often hear members of those groups being “thanked for their service.” And in our current COVID life, health care workers aren’t generally getting the daily “thanks for their service.” I’m tired of being told that “if it weren’t for the military, you wouldn’t have the freedom to criticize them” and yet, I get told BY POLITICIANS AND MILITARY LEADERS that I’m somehow less important because I didn’t serve. My dad was in the military and it was his life that kept me from ever wanting to consider serving.
*Not counting politics, of course.
And today Himself is attacking Laurene Powell, the widow of Steve Jobs, because she’s majority owner of the Atlantic. And he’s urging his minions to do it, too.
Twitter needs to shut him down, or take down the tweets like this.
I’m with you, Murph. tRump has pooped on many of my family and friends too.
It is interesting that this is coming out now. Seems like Kelly and Mattis and some of the others who were at one time in this administration are waiting to report this just 60 days before the election.
I checked the Trump supporter response. It seems the only thing they want to talk about is Nancy Pelosi’s wet hair.