Once again, the very vocal Democratic House Rep Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts speaks out against Donald Trump and the continuous slew of atrocious actions by the Republicans Party and injustice at its worst. On Wednesday, after Trump announced his ban on transgender people serving in the military, Kennedy adamantly censured Trump for the ban, adding ALL of our soldiers serving for ALL of our country deserve at minimum common decency and respect show to them. Here is the lede to his Facebook post followed by the YouTube video of his speech.
“Our soldiers do not discriminate. They do not offer to pay the ultimate sacrifice to protect some lives and not others. Their government owes them that courtesy – that decency – in return.” -Joe Kennedy III
Video:
Transcript:
Mr. Speaker,
When our bravest men and women raise their hand and volunteers to defend our nation, they defend all of her people: rich and poor, young and old, Democrat and Republican, gay straight— Americans of all races, religions, ethnicities, beliefs, gender identities...
Our soldiers do not discriminate.They do not offer to pay the ultimate sacrifice for some Americans and not for others.
Their government owes them that same courtesy, that same decency in return. Instead, this morning, our president told thousands of American soldiers that they will fight for us, but we will not fight for them — that their deeply personal medical decisions are somehow the public’s business—that although they are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect our freedom, we will not offer them the most basic freedom in return.
Today, the president of the United States looked American soldiers in the eye, and dared to question their patriotism, their courage. He doubted their commitment to their brothers and sisters in uniform. He said that our military couldn’t or wouldn’t stand for all of us.
To the thousand of brave transgender men and woman seeing today in uniform, please know the great nation does not take your service, your patriotism for granted. You deserve better from the president, you deserve better from your government, you deserve better from your country.
Thank you. I yield back.
Kennedy continues to speak out on point regarding a plethora of reigning Republican attacks that have most of the country in a terrifying and overwhelming tailspin. And it will be lawmakers like Kennedy and the persistent resistance of the people that will ultimately put an end to the horrendous Trump era. We could use more like Joe Kennedy and remain grateful to all the Democratic lawmakers and elected officials who are not only doing their jobs, but whom also refuse to back down in the face of adversity and injustice.