May My Father Rest In Peace Again Soon
June Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Black & White — Freestyle”
Voter responsibility must evolve over time.
My mother was in the winter of her life when I took “Snow on a Split Rail Fence” on a visit to her in a small town in the upper Midwest where I grew up. At that time my father was already resting in peace in the local cemetery. This picture reminds me of him. He built this fence and planted the roses that were all but buried by a winter snowstorm.
My father was a WWII Veteran. He taught Government at our local High School. He instilled in his students the understanding that for a democracy to survive its citizens needed to vote and vote responsibly.
President John F. Kennedy expanded on that responsibility in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, when he said: “..my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”
American politics has changed a lot since then. Social media and cable TV news have become bully pulpits for politicians to say whatever they choose and there is no push-back from the media on false information. Heather Cox Richardson pointed out after the first 2024 debate that “the television media and pundits … appear to have accepted Trump’s framing of the event — that he is dominant — so fully that the fact Trump unleashed a flood of lies and non-sequiturs simply didn’t register.”
That leaves responsible voters with the job of debunking the lies themselves. One of the things that Former President Trump said during the debate was that the military loves him. On the same day as the televised debate, I received a letter from Major General (Retired) Paul Eaton, who commanded the operations to train Iraqi troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The letter said: “Trump said that he’d use our Military to deport undocumented immigrants: allow states to monitor women’s pregnancies to determine if they had an abortion; pardon all January 6 insurrectionists (as well as himself). He even shared a video promoting a “unified Reich” if he wins in November … The looming catastrophe of a second Donald Trump presidency — four years with a fascist-coddling, Putin-adoring Commander in Chief … we need to do everything in our power to stop it.”
That doesn’t sound like love to me. I wonder if my father is rolling over in his grave.
