I pray that all Americans will have pause to consider that those things (or perhaps, more accurately, people) who seek to divide us are far, far less in magnitude of importance than those who seek to unite us. I thank God that I have always had the privilege of serving under officers and NCOs who understood and exemplified concepts such as honor, respect, integrity, and loyalty. That act is a palpable disgrace to the very idea of military service by which he attempts to derive authority from it. Regardless of his personal feelings about the sad events of the past week, Captain Remkes may not use the color of uniform to push his own political views. To say that the criminal actions of a mere 40 individuals currently sought by the FBI condemns a crowd of 35,000 to the status of a “domestic enemy” is the height of irresponsibility, irrationality, and moral recklessness. I would remind Bryce that his Oath of Enlistment starts with “support and defend the Constitution of the United States”, within which the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects the rights of individuals to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress of grievances. But demagogues like Bryce would rather divide us, driving wedges with scurrilous accusations of treason. While many in this nation have been unduly influenced by this level of divisive rhetoric, I believe that most Americans still conduct themselves with goodwill and grace towards their fellow Americans. The United States Air Force Officer’s Guide lists seven Aspects of Leadership: “Mission, Integrity of Character, Responsibility, Influencing Men, Knowing Men, Unity, and Morale.” None of those aspects are in evidence within the text of this shameful letter. When I took that oath as a teenager, I never thought there would be a “domestic” enemy to our constitution, and I certainly never believed, it would be our very president. Four people who followed the president’s lead died in Wednesday’s melee. When the dust settled on Wednesday, our amazing law enforcement and National Guard regained control of the capitol, reinstituted law and order, and our elected representatives finished their sacred constitutional duty. Worse yet is that he inspired my countrymen and women to rise up against the very government that he wishes to lead. Donald Trump burnt down nearly 250 years of history because of his pathetic attempt to hold on to power. From November 3rd until January 6th, Donald Trump broke every institutional norm that our country has come to expect from its presidents following elections.īeginning with the peaceful transition of power from Washington to Adams, and then Adams to Jefferson, our nation’s presidents have peacefully handed power to their successor. Make no mistake, his insistence, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that he won the election, was the beginning of the inspiration for the attack on our democracy. These terrorists wrapped themselves in the flag of the Confederacy, and the flag to their leader, Donald Trump. They vandalized the building much as British invaders did during the War of 1812, attacked law enforcement who’ve also sworn to defend our nation’s citizens, threatened the safety of our elected representatives, and forever stained our nation’s image both at home and abroad. My countrymen and women stormed our nation’s capitol to attempt to disrupt the orderly transition of power prescribed within our constitution. However, that unbelievable possibility became real this past Wednesday. It seemed unbelievable that any American would threaten the very core of our democracy, or would attempt to tear up the living document from which we derive our very rights. However, I never thought that in my lifetime I would see a “domestic” threat to our constitution. Those wars, no matter your opinion of them, and those with which we were fighting, represented the core of that “foreign” threat to our constitution. I swore to die to defend the rights all Americans share within our most sacred document. Air Force Academy, I took an oath to defend the Constitution “against all enemies foreign and domestic.” That oath quickly came to use as our nation was attacked on 9/11, and though it would be years before I went into combat, I carried that promise to our nation as I went off to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the summer of 2001, as a seventeen-year-old freshman at the U.S.
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