My father was born in 1911 into a farming family in rural, eastern NC. He joined the US Army and deployed to Asia during World War II. My brother, wife and I are Vietnam War Era Vets; my brother served in Vietnam, my wife and I did not. Two of my adult millennial sons are military veterans; one deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq multiple times. Is it surprising to learn that I am not a ‘super-patriot’ within a distinguished military family? Are you shocked to find that I am not keen to search my genealogical records too closely as a guard against the horror of discovering that some of my ancestors may have joined the confederacy during the Civil War?
For years after I separated from my military service, I never used it as part of my identity. It was simply something I voluntarily did, not proud or ashamed of it. As I have aged and seen the sacrifices of newer generations of military personnel, I have come to not only appreciate my military service but be proud of it. I shocked myself once when I brazenly defended my service after it was challenged by my boss (who never served) on a Veterans Day when he said, “All you did was sit around in Germany and drink beer.” Even though he may have been half right (I did not drink beer at the time), I bristled with a rejoinder, “How close to a front line were you?”
This sets the background to explain my attitude toward the insurrection of January 6 and Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week.
I watched the events of January 6 unfold in real time on TV. It was a horrifying experience washing over me with a visceral reaction like a huge ocean wave would a weak swimmer. It felt like I was being personally attacked and violated. Civil Religion is not a core belief of mine, but when a shrine of our democratic principles was attacked by insurrectionists at the tacit urging of the sitting President, I got religion. The insurrectionists of January 6 are no less traitorous than the confederate army soldiers, the latter who more successfully prosecuted a nation-rending Civil War more than 150 years earlier. It is legitimate to ask, how many times must our nation have to go to war against itself to finally realize our constitutional ideal of equality under the law for every citizen, regardless of where they came from, what they believe and the color of their skin.
Lot 60 is some of the most hallowed ground in Arlington National Cemetery, entombing many of our most recent fallen heroes and heroines. Their sacrifices are emotionally raw scars on the hearts of family members. No regular citizen would be allowed, invited or not, to make a self-serving video within these sacred confines. Isn’t it revealing that none of the January 6 perpetrators have attempted such a brazen act, some of whom are military veterans with (possibly) friends buried nearby? Trump, in his role of regular citizen presidential candidate, felt no such inhibitions and his staff abused an ANC employee after she explained that political activities were not allowed on the grounds.
This shameful form of obvious political grandstanding by a former President and Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces is a direct insult to military veterans, active-duty members, and their families. This incident did not have the same affect on me as the Jan 6 insurrection and I need to engage in some serious introspection to understand why. I have fervently tried to not become inured to or normalize Trump’s unhinged political shenanigans. I am no longer shocked at what he does but recognize his irredeemable, self-serving motives as a clear and present danger to our democracy. He is a peerless, destructive outlier in the history of the American political pantheon who needs to be relegated, along with his MAGA disciples, to the nearest dustbin of failed coup d’etats. One path forward is to see him suffer a resounding and humiliating defeat in the 2024 election.