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Writer's picturejojobeansmo

How to say Thank you to a vet.

"Ask not what your country can do for you...ask what you can do for your country."--John F. Kennedy One of the most iconic quotes ever made by a sitting President of the United States that dared to ask citizens to pull their weight in improving the way our society as a collective whole. Everyone and their brother has quoted it to justify some kind of agenda. Be it conservatives to defund social programs or liberals to try "Rally the troops". But what does the quote actually mean to the average citizen? For some, it's to join the "Red, white and blue" Team (No, I am not talking about MAGA either) or do community work to make the world a little better place to be in. But I think that it's time to put a spotlight on the men and women who served honorably and are ready to stick to their oath of defending our Constitution. I say that because they don't get near the credit they rightly deserve. And don't get it twisted--This is not a piece on the empty platitudes of "Thank you for your service" or a glorification of our troops. Although, they do deserve our utmost respect considering the personal sacrifices they have to make to have the privilege of serving the nation's interest-- Not asking for anything in return. Now we can talk all day about the issues that surround our vets from the VA being run like a DMV to how our society tends to treat them as a whole (Thanks Jane Fonda!). But I would rather highlight the ones that are willing to be in service of others even though they don't have to. These men and women are fierce and ready to fight for their homeland. And again, I'm not talking about the ones associated with MAGA that got caught up in Jan 6th insurrection. Don't get me wrong, I kind of feel for them, and wonder what happened in their lives that made them so disillusioned by our democracy that they are willing to overthrow it and replace it with authoritarianism and White Nationalism. But I am talking about guys like Don Moss, a combat vet that served 23 years proudly. Or Dan Barkhuff who is a former SEAL (he's also pretty certain he's the only SEAL that hasn't written a book.) --That held nothing back when Eric Greitens was running in the primary. Luckily for us, thousands more men and women that are cut from the same caliber of cloth and willing to uphold their oath to that 235-year-old piece of parchment and to the American people. These are the folks that we need to be listening to. Not the media, not politicians, not your cousin bob the plumber who thinks he's some kind of expert on domestic terrorism and policies. It's these fearless people who marched into the deepest part of hell and saw things that we could not even possibly begin to fathom. These warriors have seen firsthand real oppression and the damage done by the governments that MAGA would like to install here. Right now, they're blaring the tornado siren of warning of the upcoming storm of consequences should MAGA get back into power. All they're asking from us is to listen to them when they speak about this because most of them if not all of them-- have seen this firsthand. This isn't glorifying their experiences or putting them on a high pedestal. No, this isn't that, because it's the truth that they're speaking. And here in Missouri, we are experiencing the consequences that vets like Don and Dan are talking about in real-time, and it's not pretty either... The next time you want to "Thank a Vet" I really want you to think about this group of proud warriors and what you're actually thanking for. I mean they're also telling us that are fighting back the extremists that they're not out of the fight, and we're not on our own. They are saying the quiet part out loud, and that they're willing to jump in the foxholes and trenches with us mere morals to protect our democracy, and that they haven't forgotten their oaths. Despite the fact, our society too often forgets about them and leaves them out to dry. It's time to stop the empty truism and really show them that we're grateful by listening to their warnings and stepping up to fight for democracy. Our warfighters (currently enlisted and retired) deserve better than folks just setting by watching our Republic get engulfed by the flames of authoritarian getting put in place. Start listening to the warfighters folks. It's really that simple. Remember, it's not what the country can do for us, but what we can do for our country, and take the quote to heart by going to the polls on Nov 8th and voting every single one of the extremists out of office. From local races, state, and national levels. I get that on local and state levels is hard to do in Missouri due to uncontested seats, but you can get involved. Start getting very vocal and informing folks of bad it is and how it's going to get worse if we don't start standing up for ourselves. As always take care and be good to another Much love and peace out, Jojo PS- here are the links to Dan and Don's Twitter pages so you can see what other projects they got going on when they're not calling out wannabe fascists and Army Cosplayers. https://twitter.com/DonMossOH https://twitter.com/DBarkhuff https://twitter.com/votevets

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