I am married to an active duty soldier in the Army and have been acclimating to "military" life for several years now. The transition from single, working mom to SAHM and military spouse was a painful one. Another difficulty was being a liberal Democrat thrust into a bastion of conservatism. The Republican party has hijacked the military and a spouse who speaks out as a Democrat finds herself viewed as disloyal, unpatriotic, unsupportive of her spouse, and subversive of the military as a whole. Inspired by the prolonged war in Iraq and the increasing and collective unrest of my sisters, I began to question the silent support of military policies that place our spouses in danger, put our families in distress, and cause our lives overall to be lives lived under duress.
Reaching out to spouses who were similarly frustrated and angry with the military and federal government, I created Military Spouses for Change (MSC). A decision was made to abandon the silence that defines us, choosing instead to declare that it is neither subversive nor disloyal to be politically informed, involved, and, potentially, organized. In fact, there is nothing greater that we could do for our spouses, our military, and our country: our political involvement is our way of supporting our troops.
Military spouses have insight and experience with the military that is second only to that of the service-members, yet they are not similarly limited from political action and expression. We believe that politically organized spouses (or just politically informed and active spouses) could significantly influence existing and future military-related policies, resulting in improved support services and a more responsible use of military resources.
The founding members wanted MSC to be a mechanism for challenging the idea (among the military community) that spouses should not have a voice when it comes to shaping military policies and decisions. This is ridiculous. Spouses are as strongly affected by, and familiar with, these policies as service-members are. Both husband and wife endure the consequences of repeated deployments and ever-increasing troop casualties and losses. Both struggle with unresponsive support services (as supply cannot meet demand) and a completely overwhelmed and under-funded VA system. Neither is immune to these experiences although they may experience them differently.
Not only do military spouses have a political voice, they also have the right to use it. We are painfully aware that "military needs come first." But when we vote for the next President of the United States, we will finally they have the chance to define what exactly those "military needs" are.
Are other military spouses out there who have broken from the silent ranks?
Our organization can be found at www.militaryspousesforchange.com. Membership is available to anyone although our mission is to inform and empower the spouses of service-members and vets. Please spread the word. Oh, and be patient with the site. Godaddy sucks and I am having A LOT of problems with it.