SETTING A REAL VETERANS AGENDA
SOMETHING NOBODY HAS EVER DONE
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
This week two issues were “top of the list.” First thing was to find ways to put together the veterans organizations that have approached us at VT that need more of a voice. Not everybodys politics match but we all care about some of the same issues. It has been good work with good people.
The rest of the time, I have been trading reload specification for ammunition and discussing guns with friends. Most of us are either hunters or shooters. I am a gun smith and restoration guy and love the work. Sometimes this brings us together more than talking PTSD and “terrorism.”
I am in Europe or the Middle East (or elsewhere) much of the time, other friends are fishing in Baja, riding motorcycles thru southern Arizona or, if lucky, living in the middle of nowhere. Whether veterans activists from the left, right or center, our real lives are the simple pleasures of friends and the things we share. I see a road trip coming up.
No organization, no “talking news freak,” no DC “veterans legislative weenie” is every going to really be “one of us.” They are always going to be the folks wanting to sell you something, people who want money but hate work. I am sick of “advocates” who always end up with a big house and fat bank account.
Too often people see themselves as dreadfully serious, not remembering that blowing a hole in an artery or some idiot running into your car can take anything away. Some of us are sick, if we are Vietnam or Desert Storm veterans, most of us are sick. Better us than our kids.
As veterans, however, we take pride in what we can do, not what we can’t, even if getting to the store or across the room is all that is possible, and for some here that is the whole world.
Some days I get enjoyment out of my bad Germanic brain chemistry. Today I got a flurry of emails about how Senator Harry Reid had attacked Barbara Bush. I got to meet her husband years ago and can’t think of a nicer person. Now, however, he hangs out every day with Bill Clinton. I can’t imagine what horrors those two are up to.
Anyway, I went online and found nearly a hundred internet sites with the exact same quote I had seen in my daily email from Michael Steele. Reid attacks Barbara Bush! Over and over, endlessly screamed. Should I ask for a refund on my internet bill? If this was cable television, it would be like a hundred channels of the same infomercial.
I finally found a review of the book. I really know nothing about Harry Reid. First thing I found was that his statement about Barb Bush was a one line quote from Senator Lloyd Bensen of Texas. This made the hundred websites, not only spammers but liars. Big surprise there.
Then I read more. Reid was a poor kid who lived as tough a life as anyone of us, an ex cop (like too many of us) and a gun guy. Yes, the man the NRA says is going to take away our guns has a carry permit and uses it. I check his voting record. He is, not only able to block any legislation at any time, but he is very pro gun.
This made the NRA seem like a pack of thieving liars who make up stories to bilk members out of money to fight enemies who are really friends. Shame on them. Funny how so many of us who love guns and love the outdoors hire spineless lying creeps to protect our interests. We deserve what we get.
Then I thought about Harry Reid. If he is such a nice person, what the hell is he doing in Washington?
One of our Editors is a retired Congressman and UN Ambassador. We are good friends. He spends half his time trying to tell me that John Ashcroft is really a nice person and not the spawn of Satan. He already knows about the real world. He is in a fight for his life with the Justice Department, has a daughter serving in the Middle East and his family members with serious illnesses who need tons of care.
What if? What if our politics, our fears and even our religious beliefs have all been polluted by people who exploit us for personal gain? Is the world like that?
Has it been that way for centuries or longer?
What if every belief makes us less a person? Cops see people as suspects. Hospitals see your insurance card but not you. Lawyers. Judges. Where does it stop?
Can you love America, fight for your friends, family and even country and not be a flag waving patriot?
If Washington “weenies” paying off our government push us to invade a country for oil are patriots the people who kick down doors and risk their lives or the ones who march in the streets? Vietnam taught those of us who tell the truth that it is both. Those who say otherwise are phonies and liars.
If we have to hesitate too long to answer that question, then we may not be the free people we think we are.
Who are our heroes? Jesus? Ghandi? Thomas Jefferson? What would Jefferson do?
Would he march and write? Would Jefferson have been jailed by Gonzales?
Would Jesus be in prison? The Romans may have killed him but his he was betrayed by people who killed him because his beliefs talked of freedom and they needed people to live in fear. Sound familiar?
If your brain is tied to a box, be it computer or television, then freedom is outside that box.
Why, when someone talks about morality and justice, do I feel like they are reaching their hand, not just into my pocket but maybe setting me up for something worse?
In a world where only those who “sell their souls” have a voice, every voice we hear will be soulless.
And so it goes.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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