What Country Did They Fight and Die For?

 I was watching the movie 12th Man, a Norwegian film about a saboteur, the only one of twelve to escape the Germans alive. The story is as much about the citizens who shepherd him to the Swedish border as it is about his will to survive under the most extreme conditions.  After 59 days and constant pursuit by the Gestapo, he makes it back to freedom. It is a true story and it was a reminder for me that  sacrifice for country is not an American ideal.   We don't own it.  Our elite universities don't own it  and our flag-waving, rifle-backed militias don't own it.  That sacrifice comes from our soldiers, their families, and through our support for them.  It comes from common people who fight for our freedom.

I did not serve our country.  I grew up in the final years of Vietnam and the national embarrassment that followed. We lost our first war in  Vietnam and our soldiers returned home not as heroes, but as something else  that stained us as a nation. It took a long time and the reality of what we lost, of who we lost when the names of every soldier killed in Vietnam was chiseled into the dark granite wall at their memorial in Washington DC.  We watched as brothers in war, families, friends, loved ones came to the wall, to remember who they lost- to honor their fallen. Our Nation finally rose from the fog of war, from the dark politics of our leaders, and we mourned, and we finally honored those who served.  Their sacrifice, those injured and those killed, will never be forgotten by their Countrymen.

What Country did they fight for?  

There are rows upon rows of white crosses at Arlington National Cemetery.  Have you ever been there?  Do you know someone interred there?  These brave souls, rows upon rows, thousands upon thousands, gave their lives for a cause- liberty as written as a promise in the documents of our founders- the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States that as long as we sacrificed for our cause, as long as we defended our liberty with our lives if necessary- the promise of freedom, the promise of liberty, the promise of the power that is vested in the people would never die. 

What Country do those crosses represent?

This isn't a game.  We have elections and we choose our leaders.  Some rise to the occasion and become great leaders and others do not.  But all of them, the best and the worst of them concede and allow the transfer of power when the election is lost.  It is precisely because we have a responsibility to honor every white cross, every name chiseled into granite, every grave of every solider, whether entombed in a ship at Pearl Harbor, or on Flanders fields- we the people and that means all of us, not red states or blue states, not right wing or left wing, not Christian or Muslim - ALL OF US AMERICANS have a responsibility to keep the promise to those who fought, those who fight, and those who have sacrificed for our Country.

No one is above our Constitution, above our Declaration, our Bill of Rights,  above our promise to those who gave their lives for a  freedom forged in the documents we hold dear.  On this day, on this Veterans Day, our President must keep that promise and the party leaders who support his false narrative need to keep that promise.  He must concede and allow for the peaceful transfer of power.

What Country keeps their promise to their soldiers that their sacrifice is not in vain?

The people have voted in a fair  election in accordance with our laws. The orderly transfer of power is needed and necessary or all those lives, all those buried  or lost or missing in action have died in vain for a cause that will soon end, a freedom that has no future, and the death of a great experiment where the people who were once invested in the power have instead chosen to be governed by a populist leader.  The American flag has stars and stipes and no names.  TRUMP is not a real flag and his Presidency, like all that have served before him must come to an end on January 20th.  It's a honor to serve, not a right.  His time now must draw to a close.

We made a promise and the eyes of the world are upon us. If we truly want to honor Veterans Day, then we should hold our leaders  accountable to that promise and honor our soldiers not with wreaths but with their timely actions in support of our promise.   

The orderly transfer of power peacefully from one administration to another keeps that promise alive and is the greatest honor we can bestow upon our Veterans- to defend the constitution as they do, with righteousness, with honor and respect for the words that are written and preserved for all time.  We must treat that promise with the same resolve as our brave men and women of our military keep their promise to defend our country.

What country honors the peaceful transfer of power as resolutely as we honor our fallen, as we honor our promise to remain a free nation as our founders envisioned it, as our soldiers, God bless them all, fought and died to to keep that promise alive, to keep Democracy shining bright, to be a beacon for all?

What Country? The United States of America.  God bless our leaders that they would choose to keep our promise and honor our Veterans by preserving liberty for all Americans. God give them the strength to be resolute, righteous, against all who would drive us to fascism for vanity's sake, who would destroy our institutions, threaten our rights, and undermine our freedoms and dishonor our soldiers, in order to retain a power that is no longer theirs to wield. The people have chosen.

 God Bless our Veterans.