AND, SO IT GOES... THE MILITARY STANDS UP AND SPEAKS OUT AGAINST BIGOTRY, EXTREMISM AND TRUMP!

I admit that I was VERY uncomfortable with Trump surrounding himself with military Generals in the White House.  With a long tradition of civilian control of the levers of power… and, with an unstable, insecure mental case holding the nuclear codes, the pairing of the two looked like trouble ahead.  This would be especially true if the Donald had absorbed enough history to conclude that the nation had always rallied around a “wartime president.”  With saber-rattling directed toward North Korea and Venezuela, the "mother of all bombs" attack in Syria, and Trump’s active verbal attacks on allies and enemies alike, it looked like he was really wanting military parades, heroic acts of military force, and – “damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!” All this was cause for worry...

On the heels of Charlottesville, I may have to re-access my concern.  America’s top-ranking military officers – members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – stood up and spoke out against the extremism displayed in Charlottesville this past weekend.  In an unusual foray into domestic political discourse, the military leaders denounced bigotry, racism, hatred, and extremism.  In a tweet, General Mark Milley said “It’s against our values and everything that we have stood for since 1775.”  Although this and similar tweet statements did not mention the Commander in Chief by name, the statements appear to be in response to Trump’s Tuesday re-statement of his Saturday response to the tragedy in Charlottesville in saying that “there is blame on all sides”... "blame on both sides."  Specifically, Trump placed more than “equivalent” blame on the “Alt.left.”

Let’s be clear here – George Washington and Robert E. Lee are NOT comparable American heroes. One gave birth to a free nation and the other tried to destroy it! And, those extremists who are KKK, white supremacists, bigots, anti-Semitic, anti-Immigrant, anti-Black and Latino, xenophobic reactionaries are certainly not reflecting the American ideal of “all men created equal” or Emma Lazarus' inscription on the Statue of Liberty:

        

          "send me your tired, your poor, your huddles masses, yearning to breathe free, the 

          wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send, these, the homeless, tempest-tossed
          to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."   

 I welcome the voices of liberty, equality, and justice defending our nation from all quarters, and that includes those wearing our nation’s uniform.