“In June 2004 I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and over the past ten years the integrity of that document has been severely compromised, and our civil liberties have been gradually repealed. I believe this is because the will of the American people has not been honestly reflected in our policy, and often because misinformation is spread to manipulate the people’s decision-making processes here in the United States. These problems are largely the effects of corporate abuses of American democracy.
...
“I know our domestic and foreign policies would be significantly different if the American people’s voices were legitimately listen to by our legislators and leaders, instead of being drowned out by corporate and multinational lobbyists with billions of dollars to ensure that laws are written laced with loopholes and politicians are elected who will listen to them first, instead of regularly overlooking human rights violations and apartheid, while in other cases strongly condemning them or even greatly exaggerating them in order to create justification for war while hiding the real reasons from the public.
...
“I see the threats this country and the world are facing as an emergency because the form of fascist or corporate rule of the future would probably be much different than the well-known examples from history, but comparable, equal to, or possibly even greater in its scope and capacity for brutality. We have high ideals and values as a nation to be our clear markers to ensuring a free world. Our values and ideals are not obstacles to be gone around in times of crisis, but when they are treated as such, it has the effect of making us a nation we are not. The emergency situation the country and the world finds ourselves in is being addressed by millions of people around the world, in thousands of cities with the tactic of peaceably assembling around the clock in protest and with democratic action for change, and the right of U.S. Citizens to peaceably assemble is a right I am proud to say I defended, along with the rest of the Constitution, and one I will continue to defend.
I left him this:
Well said, Sergeant. I took the same oath you did to defend this country and The Constitution from all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC. Like you, I never un-took that oath either and will carry it out until the day I die.
Gordon
Former Corporal, USMC, 1963-'66
3rdBn., 8thMarines
Apropos of nothing at all, I reported for active duty 48 years ago today. Sometimes I feel like I'm still on it.
5 comments:
Agreed. It's been 61 years ago, last month for me. Served in Inchon, Korea on the USS Consolation (AH-15) and years later in Vietnam at the Station Hospital in Danang. An oath taken sits with a person for the rest of their lives and incurs an obligation to see that it is followed.
Semper fi, as my friends in the 3rd Marine Air Wing would put it.
Thank you, Gordon...both for posting this and for your service. I'm just an old one-tour WAC, but I feel the same way about the obligation.
Thank you, Jim.
Labrys, one tour makes you special. It's what I did and more than most have done.
I once met a man who had been in the Queen Anne's Service and I ask him how long he had been out. He fixed me with a cold eye and remarked "Young man, once in the Queen Anne's Service always n the Queen Anne's service. You are never OUT".
My dad and I discussed this many years ago. He was a volunteer in the Navy in WW2 and saw plenty of action in the South Pacific including being a photographer at Bikini. We agreed that once you decide to take that oath you have crossed the line and when you take it there is no going back.
It's amazing how some folks (those of us here) who took that same oath want to protect everybody and others only want to protect the people who agree with them.
Post a Comment