The Other America
I saw a side of America the other day that is different from, but no less real than, the chaotic one we have had to navigate in recent years.
It was at a funeral for Colonel David E. Schorr (US Army ret.). Hundreds of people whose lives he had touched attended. I was not one of them. Having never met Colonel Schorr I went to honor his son and, in so doing, was reminded of what it means to honor America.
If Vietnam was arguably one of our “bad” wars, Colonel Schorr demonstrated that there were good men who fought in it. During two combat tours in that conflict, he was the last man off the battlefield – earning several of our nation’s highest awards for personal bravery. At home, too, Colonel Schorr also always “showed up” for his community, his God, his wife, and his four children – each of whom spoke at their father’s funeral. During which they each described, in a variety of ways, a man whose life was defined by duty, honor, and family. That was lived with humility
We are all formed by what we experience. Colonel Schorr was neither an aged transactional billionaire nor an elderly politician with an outsized ego unattached to reality. His path was much more direct. He cared for and about his family at home, and for and about men from other people’s families that he commanded in combat in a distant land.
The latter is something I never experienced, and it seems that those who have rarely talk about it. Perhaps because the memories evoked are suffused with too much human suffering and brutal mortality.
Listening to how Colonel’s Schorr’s children spoke of their father, though, it occurred to me that being responsible for the lives of others in combat may also – in some people – foster humility, deepen faith, and reveal courage.
Having not lived that part of life, I really can’t say for sure. But I do know this; in a society enmeshed in empty political taglines it is duty, honor, family and humility that actually reflect what America wants to be, and describe the way towards a more perfect union.
I saw that simple truth in the individual decisions of the hundreds of attendees who felt compelled to mark Colonel Schorr’s passing. And I know it from own heart. As do you, from yours.
Imagine a president with personal honor. Grounded in a sense of duty, who serves the American family with humility.
We cannot be Colonel Schorr. But we are a nation of 330 million souls that has the power to honor America, too – by demanding such leaders at all levels of government. When will we?
Andrew Leven’s comment fails the smell test. Trump was the only President to show for the families 13 military vets murdered in Afghanistan by the Biden Administration. The Democrats could not, would not, say the names of the 13 Murdered military heroes. In fact, Biden stood on the tarmac at Dover AFB when their bodies came home and kept looking at his watch as to when the “show” would conclude.
Trump shows up for injured veterans. He flies injured vets to hospitals in his own jet. He supports the vets, as evidenced by his first term changing the VA, only to have Biden ruin it again. Trump supports the military. He shows up unannounced at military bases and greets the troops.
Instead of throwing in your vapid comments about the “aged transactional billionaire”, you should really do some research about him and see all he’s done for veterans. But, then I digress. You have Trump Derangement Syndrome and it negatively affects your very being on Earth.
As I stood in line at an event for RFK Jr. in Brooklyn early in the presidential campaign season, I started chatting with a young man named , Matthew. He came all the way from California. I asked why the enthusiasm for RFK Jr. and without hesitation he replied, “ I don’t want my generation of both boys and girls to be sent off to war. I want an administration that will promote peace and stop the bloodshed.”
He understood that freedom was not free, but going to war should be the last resort. Matthew has a bright future and dreams of being an entrepreneur. The uniform Matthew wants to wear is that of a productive person ; that to is duty to country.
Call me a “ flower child,” but this conversation stuck with me. My husband is a military veteran with 32 years of honorable and heroic service in Special Forces. A life of military duty is a hard life. Our Commander and Chief will need to make hard decisions, with peace always being the primary goal.
The youth voted in this election and the results are clear.
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“Thomas Jefferson,” it is true that the withdrawal from Afghanistan could have and should have been handled in a much better fashion. But here is where it is you who is quite nose-blind on this issue. Trump began the drawdown there. Furthermore, having obtained multiple deferments from serving during the Vietnam era by dubiously claiming bone Spurs due to playing basketball, it is Trump who shirked his patriotic duty in that war. He called Senator McCain a loser for being captured during the Vietnam War. He called soldiers who die in combat suckers. As a Veteran, I take great exception to that. Your comment about the VA is laughable and demonstrates how misinformed you are on your sugar-coated bland diet you get from Fox News and Newsmax. Trump indeed talked a good game about giving us Veterans more options to see local doctors outside the VA network, but his aim is really quite sinister. He wants more and more money ear-marked for the VA and it’s brick and mortar health care facilities to go to outside network providers, so he can ultimately justify closing down many VA facilities and shift the tax savings to fund tax cuts for his wealthy donors. Trump supports only his own ego, not the needs of our Military or our Veterans. During the Pandemic, he jeopardized the health and safety of our Cadets at West Point, ordering them back from the safety of remote learning only so he could have a photo op with them. It is your blind hero worship of this poor excuse of a man that jeopardizes all of us here in America, as well as around the world.
NJVoter, as a fellow retired military Veteran, I salute your husband’s military service. It is not the politician that gives us our freedoms, it is the Soldier. While our Eagle carries an olive branch in one of its talons, it carries 13 arrows in the other. We must always be ready to fight if necessary to preserve our freedoms. Being the most economically blessed and powerful nation on our planet, comes the added moral imperative to defend the weak and oppressed as best that we can, lest the jackals of this world should try ( and they DO try) to pick us apart, one by one. Had our Congress voted for “peace” in either WWI or WWII, our world, our Nation, and our Freedoms would look much different. I took the time to read RFK’s campaign website when he was running. While he does have some very good ideas about how our race to the bottom in allowing our collective food diets to be dictated by Agribusiness that puts its own profits ahead of our nutritional needs, he would have ABSOLUTELY put our Nation, and our Allies security at RISK by siphoning off too much from National and Collective Defense to pay for better nutritional outcomes. His anti vaccines stance IS NOT SCIENTIFIC.
WNY Voter- Thank you for your military service. A military life is one full of sacrifices and for families one of enduring love. For our country’s national security, it is imperative that our country has a strong military, that is combat -ready. That our soldiers are well TRAINED and have the necessary resources to carry out any military operation. If a soldier is ready to lay down their life for love of country, the mission should be decided on as a result of careful thought. That is the job of our Commander and Chief.
Our great military and its’ power can help preserve peace. “Peace through strength” is what Matthew and his fellow contemporaries may have had on their minds when going to vote. (?)
Most important to this discussion is love of country. Too many times, we see our great flag being burned in the streets and civic pride a mere afterthought.
RFK Jr. is not anti-vaccine. He is only suggesting thorough research. And you cannot have a force with readiness to respond to and engage in combat that has a nation of unhealthy children that can’t read and do not respect our flag. Perhaps this is the wake- up call that this great nation needs to address.