Patriotism - A Friendly Letter

Monday – June 9: Just heard that Trump is coming to preen & prattle on my old stamping ground— Fort Bragg-Liberty-Bragg tomorrow, the 10th. It’s part of the hoopla buildup to his totally unnecessary and utterly narcissistic Mussolini-wannabe parade in Washington on June 14.

I helped with protests aimed at several Bragg visits by two presidents, and a couple more boosting a third.

If I was putting together a protest for tomorrow, today I’d be hosting a-poster-making party, and futzing with wide colored markers, scribbling notes for messages to scrawl on them.

I can still do that now, only online and social media.

The messages always felt important, tho they also had to be brief, readable by speeding passersby in a second or two.

This time, several motifs stand out:

— Voicing respect for the troops (you can do that while rejecting the wars they’re sent to fight)

— Restating that they ALL take an oath to defend the CONSTITUTION, not some monarchical wannabe;

— Pointing out a few of the innumerable ways that 47 soils and tramples that oath, which he took too; and how he mocks their service & sacrifice.

— That the defense they mount is on behalf of all our RIGHTS under the Constitution.

Events in Los Angeles over the weekend underscored the salience of these points. And opportunities to repeat them should come several times between now and the conclusion of the Saturday parade and all its grim gaudiness.

Here is a sampler of what some might look like. If any appeal, feel free to copy and pass them on.

We’ll begin with one aimed at the rabidly resegregating Secretary of Defense:

Next an allusion to the depthless criminality of the 34-count convicted and adjudicated sexual assaulter/memecoin bribe-sucker now auctioning off pardons on the side in the oval office . . ,