Mr. Trump:
I am a Veteran with ten years of Honorable service, which included combat service in Vietnam with the U. S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division. While you were concocting reasons why you should be exempted from service during that conflict, I deliberately put aside four valid reasons I could have used to have also avoided service. But I didn’t do that. Although, as I matured and learned more about it, I came to understand why the U. S. involvement in Vietnam was wrong I do not regret having served there or for my service during the years after that when I got home.
I was at a VA Hospital yesterday undergoing tests for a possible Agent Orange related medical condition that may in the end prove fatal or, if I am lucky, may simply be something I will learn to live with. Either way though it is a price I will willingly pay; that’s what being a Veteran is about. What price have you ever paid, Mr. Trump, for the privilege of being an American? None that I have ever seen.
What is being a Veteran not about, Mr. Trump? It is not about being a prop for your own glorification. We, the Veterans, do not serve you. It is you who serve us as much as you also serve all Americans regardless of their race, creed, color, ethnicity, religion or any other demographic. You also serve those of us, civilian and veteran alike, who not only disagree with you but who are vocal and public about it. We are not “fake news” any more than we are your props.
During my all-too-many visits lately to VA clinics and hospitals I observe my fellow veterans as they also seek care for what they endured during their service. While it is easy to see many of them – many of us – as men and women who are broken in body and/or mind, I see the young 18 and 19 year old kids who entered service as the vital and healthy young men and women they were when they enlisted or were drafted. What do you see? Props.
When I got home last night after a very difficult day, uncertain of the outcome of the tests I went through, I turned on my radio to listen, unwind and relax. The very first thing I heard was your speech to the American Legion and I found myself becoming very angry. You spoke of “unity” and “shared values” and “sacrifice” to these Veterans on the heels of your despicable and divisive rally speech in Phoenix. Did you believe, even for a minute, that the false platitudes you tossed out to one audience would erase the very real fact that just prior to those remarks you made every effort to undermine our Free Press, our diversity as a nation, and our honor as Americans who have stood against all forms of repression and demagoguery? Or, to make it simpler for you to understand: You insulted the very values we as Veterans have fought for, were wounded for – and many have died for.
A fellow Veteran gave you his Purple Heart a while back; a gesture I truly did not understand. But he did so and that was his choice as a free citizen and so as a fellow Veteran I will respect his gesture. But when he gave that to you, your comment was that you had always wanted to “win” a Purple Heart yourself. The Purple Heart is not a prize to be “won” Mr. Trump. It is an award that is earned through sacrifice, a concept you are apparently not capable of understanding.
How angry did your recent speeches make me, Mr. Trump? I will tell you, albeit at the risk of perhaps equally angering others who support you.
I, too, wish you had had the courage to “win” a Purple Heart. Posthumously if need be.