WHEN I WAS A YOUNG LAD OF 17 I enlisted in the US Air Force. This was 1960 – almost the end of the hot “UN” Korean policing action and the ramping up of the war in Vietnam.
Unlike the heart throbs of the day, I joined the regular Air Force rather than the AF Reserves or Air National Guard. (Credit where it’s due: THE major heart throb, Elvis Presley, did his time in the Regular Army, inside a tank.)
There were, in my brief military “career” a few “chicken colonels” I disliked, but the chickens on their collar rated, and received, a salute.
This idea of honor the rank if not the person holding the rank seems to be an anachronism; civility forgotten somewhere between a politician’s home and the state or national capital.
When President Trump invited the leadership of both parties to his office to try and find common ground, the Democrat (Dumb-o-crat) leadership stood him up.
Like him or not – and there are many who consider him beneath contempt – he IS the nation’s president; in military terms, he is the Commander in Chief, the boss.
Neither he, nor the O-6s with whom I took exception, are above the law.
No one expects the likes of Hillary Clinton and her leftist sycophants to respect Mr. Trump, but they should – albeit they do not – show a modicum of respect for the office.
- Salute the rank, not the person.
Disrespecting the person of the President is nothing new in this country. I doubt there ever has been a president who was not disrespected, no matter what party he represented.
Disrespecting the office of the President is another matter.
- Salute the rank, not the person.
President Trump called for the nation to work together. “We” can make America great again. “We” can make things better.
Rather than agree to try to work together, there were people who insist that they are excluded from the “we” because of the color of their skin.1
Despite the president’s willingness to create a path to citizenship for “Dreamers,” the so-called Dreamers, egged on by the leftists, continue to claim he is offering nothing. He’s asking that the “Dreamers” either stay in school or find a job to prove they can be productive citizens. He is not telling them to enlist in the military or to volunteer for national service with Americorps VISTA2 Many citizen want-to-be’s expedited their path to citizenship via service of one type or another to the country they want to adopt.
The leftists are talented yellers and screamers, but seem to have no talent for listening. They insist that President Trump’s “We” does not include them. In fact, they exclude themselves. His “dreamers to citizens” proposal is not good enough. Why? Mostly because the Dumb-o-crats cannot take credit for it. The Dreamers are just pawns of the leftists.
They never learned the lesson I learned early on in Air Force basic training: “Salute the rank, not the officer wearing it.”
- A little military humor.
Enlisted man at a vending machine.
Officer – probably a newly minted second lieutenant – approaches and asks” “Do you have change for $5? “
The enlisted man replies “I’ll check.”
The officer responds: “That’s ‘I’ll check, SIR!’ I will ask you again: Do you have change for $5?”
To which the enlisted man promptly replies: “No SIR!”
Sources
1. http://tinyurl.com/ya73a8wh
2. http://tinyurl.com/yd6tse8l
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
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