Thanks For Your Service But If You’re Brown Get Out of Town
Read Time:3 Minute, 32 Second
Ever fly over the United States? Most are struck by just how much empty space there is. That’s if you’re northern European and Protestant. Otherwise, you’re a criminal, as our president will tell you. A rapist, a drug smuggler, and a gang member. There’s no room here for you.
Our president. Our unique and unprecedented, hate-filled and obscene president who spends most of his working hours defaming, libeling, slandering and hate mongering in person and online. He has the same vision of a master race we went to war to destroy.
He’s gone so far as to begin to remove immigrants from the military, often specialists with advanced degrees and skills that are hard to find otherwise. Never mind that we make such an exaggerated fuss out of thanking every cook and bottle washer for his service. In fact, I’ve seen people in airports nearly tripping a bunch of German Air Force pilots in thanks for their service, something my father, an ex WWII Navy pilot, would have had a stroke over. I guess that gratitude is canceled out by being an immigrant from the South, however – even if he’s willing to put himself into harm’s way in some misguided war to serve a country he obviously loves. No “thank you for your service” this time, but rather “if you’re brown, get out of town” and leave your medals behind.
There’s simply no other explanation than racism and the will to use it to grab ever more power. Once upon a time and not long ago, one was given an advantage toward becoming a citizen if they’d served in the armed forces and of course many did. Right from the beginning, in fact, and many wonder if Washington wouldn’t have ended his days at the end of a rope otherwise. Joy Reid mentioned Baron von Steuben last night, a Prussian officer who after a sterling career was sacked from the Prussian army and perhaps because he was openly gay. So here we have a gay immigrant with no papers and no English and he helped turn the tide against European monarchy and for freedom. He was given US citizenship for his pivotal service as were people like the Marquis de Lafayette, Casimir Pulaski, Tadeusz Kościuszko and more. We thanked them for their service in a meaningful way.
Nobody ever thanked my great grandfather Silas. He stepped off the boat from Baden and joined the New York Infantry at the start of the Civil war and served until the end. His father was a Farmer, who arrived in New Orleans in 1850 and went from being a farmer to a department store owner and a rich man.
Silas was an undocumented immigrant, speaking no English. He went west afterward and prospered as did my other undocumented German ancestors, migrating all the way out to “old west” Missouri and Wyoming and Texas, finding places in business, industry and the government, fighting in all our subsequent wars. One ancestor was appointed by Teddy Roosevelt to help set up health care in Puerto Rico, back when we cared about those people.
I wouldn’t be here but for our open immigration and neither would Donald Trump. We would not have become the richest nation on Earth and a light of freedom on the horizon for the world.
That was then. That was when, relative to the times, America was great. Is that where you’re taking us, Donald? Is this the walled-off, Iron Curtain, brainwashed and no due process country where we lock up babies and send asylum seekers home to die? Is this who you support, you evil flag waving atavistic bastards willing to lose your freedom to give Trump a permanent tax break? Is this most corrupt and dishonest president in our history your hero? Why sure, he’s going to run us into the ground like a business and you’ll be the first to lose it all – your temporary ten dollar tax cut notwithstanding, while people die and babies cry and patriots are torn from their families, he sits on his golden toilet and tweets.
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Brilliant and very true, with your succinct headline and accompanying article.
I do remember a document that said, in essence, you ass belongs to the U. S. Marines. We will do what we want to do with you and you will like. I do remember hearing that if there is anything you need the Corps with provide it, and if the corps did not provide it you did not need it.
I have no answer and I don’t think it’s stupid. Like much of what’s been coming out of the wizard of Ooze it should be challenged in the courts while we still have functioning courts.
Ok so here comes Jess to ask a really stupid question. So when you go in the military, any branch of it, don’t you have to sign a contract that kind of spells out what is expected of you and when you go in and raise your hand to swear to…whatever the oath is means they have accepted you in, after checking you I imagine right. So could they maybe use a “you broke the contract with me” law to be reinstated because you accepted me as is and now you want to toss me out. You know, like the LGBT community got their bad discharges taken away after DOMA was changed, some military personnel went after the fact and had their bad discharges expunged, is it not kind of the same thing, a contract breach? Told ya it was a stupid question.
I don’t recall signing a contract per se, although I signed what seemed like dozens of documents, one of which made the terms of your military service quite clear, and that included the length of your enlistment. So, I suppose that is a contract. We also had to take an oath, hand raised, swearing allegiance, and all that. As to suing the military for some sort of contractual violation, you can’t easily, as they are part of the government, and, technically, you can’t sue the government unless it gives its permission, which it often does. I imagine the forced discharges, which are classified as neither honorable or dishonorable, are ripe for court challenges and will doubtless end up in the Supreme Court, provided they agree to hear it.