Commotion in the Pews

In years gone by I’ve posted clever (I thought) flash fiction. But this year I want to talk a little bit about the toll.

You see, veterans are people who write checks to their country that when cashed result in damaged bodies, wrecked minds and death. We all wrote those checks and hoped they wouldn’t be cashed. But we vowed our sacred loyalty to the United States of America. That oath never expires, by the way.

This year the loss of friends has hit me harder than in the past. I am still young, in my opinion, but way too many of my friends are dead. And the remaining ones all have damage to their bodies from their service. They don’t hear very well – my hearing aid story is next week – or their backs and knees are shot from carrying 100 pound packs or doing 100 carrier landings. Some have emotional problems from what they witnessed, or did themselves. Others were raped by strangers while in the military – both men and women.

And yet, as a group, there is none finer. I’d rather take that broken battalion of boozers into tight places and fight my way out with them than with even the best civilians. 

The reason why? We have shared history. I might never have met them before, but I know their mind and their life because I lived it as well. I have more in common with Korean War vets than my civilian peers. I can sit and drink a beer with a 24 year old female Marine and understand her better than her parents can. And God help you if you talk trash to either one of us, for you get to fight both of us.

But I miss my friends. I miss my sea-daddy Pete who couldn’t adjust to civilian life and killed himself. I miss Stache who just up and died one day last year with no warning. I miss Mike who died of cancer after a long battle. I miss the ones whom I never hear any more and don’t know how they died. 

I miss my youth with them. I miss not being able to tell the stories to you because they’re still classified.

But I honor everyone, even if I don’t like them, who put on the uniform and served. 

And today I will remember them all.

First, if we do nothing else in the next 3 years (let’s not wait 4) we, as a nation, need to institute proper voter ID, standardize how ballots are handled, vow never to mail everyone a ballot again without them requesting it and being vetted (we’re going to see massive fraud), and eliminate all the bad things we’re about to see.

Let’s cut back on early voting. Voting months in advance is a bad idea and doesn’t allow for things to change closer to the election. How about a week? Seems long enough for people to make it work. 

Let’s have enough voting machines in every location and enough ballots. Not having enough ballots is so far from what we need that my head explodes.

In other words, let’s make sure that everyone who can vote legally is checked and given a clean shot at their vote counting. 

No hanky-panky. Clean and orderly is good for everyone.

All of this includes no rule changes in the last days. No “mystery ballots” cropping up to swing a race a day or two later – almost always a sign of fraud.

I’m still hoping that President Trump wins the election. But God help us if Joe Biden wins. I think that Nancy Pelosi set him up for a 25th amendment challenge very soon in his term. He’s not well. And if you voted for him and turned a blind eye to his advancing dementia, you really need to examine yourself. Donald Trump is far from perfect, but Joe Biden is physically and mentally unfit to serve as president. 

If he wins, he’ll still be my president. But I fear for the turmoil about March when they try to remove him for his mental deficiencies. 

At that point, it’ll be President Harris. The laugh alone will be punishment on all of us.