The Wrong End of the Stick

No politician is perfect. No person is perfect. I can disagree with someone while supporting them. Thus, upon hearing the news, today, that Speaker Boehner is actively seeking to block the proposal that the body of last WWI Veteran Frank Buckles lay in state in the Capitol, I went to his website and wrote the following. I urge everyone to do so, as well.

Speaker Boehner,

I am a Reagan Conservative who was very glad to see the turnaround in power during the last election. I am, like President Reagan "strong" on national defense.

I am also the son of a highly decorated WWII veteran and a member of the National Order of Battlefield Commissioned Officers "Ponies" organization.

I was, to use the words of a colleague, "stunned and amazed" at the news, today, that you are actively opposing the proposal to have the body of America's last WWI veteran, Frank Buckles, lay in state in the Capitol.

I do not understand at all your objections to this honour.

If anyone outside of a former President deserves this honour, it is Mr. Buckles. Take away the fact that he was our last living link with the conflict that marked not only the shift from colonialism to the birth of superpowers, the conflict that set the stage for the Century of America. Take away the fact that he not only enlisted under-age but went on to serve with distinction. Take away the fact that he was captured and survived a notorious Japanese prison camp in World War II. Take all that away and you still are left with the fact that this man absolutely typified, in his life, his outlook, his patriotism the very soul of what made the United States the world's only surviving superpower.

This honour has indeed been bestowed upon non-legislative and non-executive citizens in the past. Most notably, the Unknown Soldiers of World War I, World War II and Vietnam. Those men were laid in state not only to honour their sacrifice and service, but to service as a reminder of those to the entirety of the United States and to honour as well those who continue to put place themselves in harm's way for their countrymen.

It is, therefore, completely fitting that Mr. Buckles be so honoured and is inconceivable and indefensible to deny, either actively or passively, such a proposal.

I urge you, sir, to reconsider your position which is, I may say, more expected out of the anti-military elements of some of your brethren across the aisle. It is not in keeping with the tenets and philosophies of the Republican Party nor, indeed, any patriotic American to so wholly disrespect those to whom our freedom is daily owed.

If nothing else, I would hope that you would explain yourself in some logical, rational way. But moreover, I would hope and expect that you would comport yourself as an American legislator and see fit to instead wholeheartedly support this proposal.

In the words of Charles Michael Province, "It is the Soldier, not the politician / Who has given us the right to vote."

Respect those who have given us the power to put you in power.

Jeffery L. Vogt
Son of Lt. Col Roland H. Vogt, US Army
NOBC

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The Price of Liberty

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." - Gen. George S. Patton

I was having a discussion the other day with someone who was asking me why we had two holidays for veterans, Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. The latter, I explained, was originally the observation of the end of World War I (the Great War, the War to End War) at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".

I noted that while Memorial Day is a day to honor those who've fallen in service to our country, Veteran's Day is a day to honor any who've served in our armed forces. But it occurs to me that this is wrong.

We live in a nation that is free. We enjoy liberties that no other nation on earth possesses (regardless of what people like Michael Moore would like to portray). And yet those freedoms come at a price. In the words of John P. Curran (often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson), "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance." People popularily paraphrase this as "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

And while the attributions and direct quotation may not be wholly correct, the idea remains. But the oft-overlooked part of this statement, or at the very least misunderstood, is the word "eternal". Our military stands a watch over us and our freedoms. That watch is constant and eternal. As the misguided Col. Jessup in "A Few Good Men" nevertheless correctly exclaimed, "Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns."

This is a 24 by 7, 365 job. Our forefathers not only said this numerous times, they were prescient enough to acknowledge that what is guarded against is not always from without when they included in the military and civilian governmental oath, "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." They and their successors reaffirmed the necessity of being on guard against threats both military and political:

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." - Daniel Webster

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

The fact is that the securing of liberties of which the Declaration of Independence speaks is a neverending task. And those who are charged with it deserve to be thanked and acknowledged not just one, not just two nor even three days a year but every single moment of every single day. They stand on that wall so that we, the protected, don't have to.

"For those that will fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected shall never know." - L/Cpl Edwin L."Tim"Craft, B Co 3rd AT's Khe Sahn Combat Base, February 1968

When I see a vet, any vet, I walk up to them and thank them for their service not on our country's behalf, but on my behalf. Their job, their choice, their sacrifices enable me to live and remain free. This means not just our military, but those who serve our government. I may not always agree with them, but I appreciate that and honor their choice of career ever day. I take their role in our nation as seriously as I take my own.

As a citizen of the United States, though I've never formally taken the oath, it is my duty as well to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

This is what I do. What do you do?

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