I’m not a professional politician. In fact, I’m just a regular guy, I’m no better and no worse than most people. I’ve had my successes and my failures, I’m not perfect, but along the way, I have learned some hard lesions in life, just like, I suspect, many of you have as well.
But,
There is an important fact about me for you to consider and It’s not my Phi Beta Kappa key from UC Berkeley in political theory, and it’s not the fact that I have traveled to almost 100 countries over the last 10 years or so, and it is not my personal religious life which led me as a Born Again Christian, to start a Christian coffee house in the 1980’s, and to attend Presbyterian seminary (although, I was raised a Baptist) looking for a Macedonian call, which obviously, never came.
It’s not any of those things that really matter about me, in terms of your vote in the primary, on June 12th, The most important fact about me is that I hate war
But, when I say I hate war, I say it with a far greater sense of urgency, and from a far more personal point of view, than, you might at first imagine.
Let me explain.
As, many of you already know, I’m a Vietnam Era Veteran, Although, I didn’t go to Vietnam, I spent all my time in the service here stateside, but towards the end of my enlistment, I received an incredible honor when I was selected to be part of the Burial Detail Honor Guard, at Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1969.
It was our job to bury the kids coming back from Vietnam.
They were coming home in large numbers, and, we buried them with full military honors anywhere in the great Northwest, and that meant that we had to take them home, and that experience became one of the seminal experiences of my life.
What we had to do on the Burial Detail, our job, my job, along with the other of the seven riflemen who were also pall bearers, was to do a 21-gun salute, three shots into the air in practiced unison, and to carry the boy to the grave in front of his parents.
Now, today, we will also be carrying our young women.
Our first Sergeant called out the formations and our bugler played those excruciatingly mournful notes of taps and except, for me, all the other guys on the Burial Detail had just returned from their Vietnam duty. Every part of it was still fresh in their minds, even though, they didn’t want to talk about it too much, but standing there next to them, I could feel what they were feeling, what was radiating out of them when we were burying those kids, and out of the corner of my eye I could see silent tears that they would never explain.
We buried one dead kid after the other. Most of them were 19, maybe, 20 years old.
One body at a time.
In small towns and big cities all over the Northwest, and we did our best, for one mother at a time, and one father at a time, one sister and one brother, at a time, and to the YOUNG WIFE OR STONE FACED FATHER OR ANGUISHED MOTHER, OR TO THE BEWILDERED CHILDREN, our white gloved sergeant handed the folded flag of our country with the utmost respect and gratitude.
The guys on the burial detail, we were all standing close enough to see very well as we stood at attention, actually, we couldn’t avoid seeing the anguish, the loss, the unknowable hurt and pain that would never go away, and always, standing by and standing near, was one group of LOVING friends, at a time.
And, after enough of those burials up close and personal, I grew to hate war, IN A MUCH MORE PROFOUND WAY THAN I EVER WOULD HAVE UNDER ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES, and it became a powerful desire in my life, that if I could, I would stop those needless burials of brave and idealistic young people, in wars that are ill conceived and unconstitutional.
And now, here we are again.
Yes!
Here we are again, because, right now, at this present moment, America is about to go into another stupid war, another needless, entirely unavoidable, misconceived, potentially, disastrous and unconstitutional War, and most American don’t even know it!
Just like when the Vietnam war started, most people that were going to be fighting in it, didn’t even know it had begun because there was never a vote taken to go to that war as is required by the Constitution of the United States, and no Declaration of War by the Congress, which is also required, and therefore, no political process, as required by the Constitution, and it’s going to be the same this time.
Because, just like in Vietnam we are going to be tricked into it, just like we were tricked into Vietnam.
LEARN IN THIS WEBSITE, HOW WE WERE TRICKED INTO VIETNAM, AND EXACTLY HOW WE WILL BE TRICKED INTO THIS NEXT WAR TOO!
BUT, YOU CAN STOP IT!
VOTE FOR LOUIS MACIAS ON JUNE 12TH TO STOP THE WAR!
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