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"I help war widows. Trump's callous insult of military won't be forgotten this Memorial Day".

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  krishna  •  6 months ago  •  15 comments

By:   Rebekah Sanderlin

"I help war widows. Trump's callous insult of military won't be forgotten this Memorial Day".
In the months following President Trump's callous insult, my husband's unit lost six more soldiers in Afghanistan. They were highly competent patriots, some of the greatest people I've ever known.

Related:

My son died by suicide. We must be brave enough to admit the problem and help veterans like him.


S E E D E D   C O N T E N T


Thirteen years before Donald Trump referred to the American service members who died in France during World War I as “ suckers " and " losers ,” I was already driving around with a Costco-size pack of toilet paper in the back of my SUV. New widows, I had learned, always need toilet paper. 

I started leading Care Teams in 2005, only we didn’t call them that then. We didn’t call them anything back then. We just helped. We, military spouses, showed up after the soldiers in dress uniforms notified someone just like us that the person she loved most in this world was never coming home. As the wife of an enlisted U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who spent more time deployed than home, my husband’s friends were the ones dying, and my friends were their widows. 

Sometimes we were there to simply be a friend to a woman who didn’t have any friends nearby, but mostly we quietly did all the little things life requires of people, things people can’t do when they’re in shock and grieving. Because most military families live far from their hometowns, they rarely have a local network to lean on during a tragedy. We became their local network. 

We vacuumed, we washed dishes, we walked their dogs. We prepared their houses for the stream of people who were about to appear. We bought groceries, arranged meal trains, picked up their family members from the airport and met their kids at the bus stop, fully aware – though those children weren’t yet – that they were having the last normal moments of their entire lives. 

I was still leading Care Teams and still carting around toilet paper in November 2018 when then-President Trump called the U.S. Marines who died at Belleau Wood in France as “suckers” and the American soldiers buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris “losers.”

I was furious and disgusted even though, like everyone else, I had become conditioned to our president saying horrible things. but there were some lines that even the most ardently antiwar protesters were too decent to cross, and this man – the president of the United States – had just spit on those lines. But I didn’t have time to stay mad then.

We were at war, and we were still getting new widows . . . 


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Krishna
Professor Expert
1  seeder  Krishna    6 months ago

I was still leading Care Teams and still carting around toilet paper in November 2018 when then-President Trump called the U.S. Marines who died at Belleau Wood in France as “suckers” and the American soldiers buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris “losers.”

 

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
2  seeder  Krishna    6 months ago

I was furious and disgusted even though, like everyone else,

I had become conditioned to our president saying horrible things. but there were some lines that even the most ardently antiwar protesters were too decent to cross, and this man – the president of the United States – had just spit on those lines.

But I didn’t have time to stay mad then.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
2.1  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Krishna @2    6 months ago

I guess I've seen enough movies about the ravages of war to comprehend what many have gone through.  All of my known relatives who served with the Canadian forces during WW2 returned whole, save for one.  Being my single digit age as a Canadian then my experience with that source of grief was limited to the effect of the loss of the son of my maternal grandfather's brother, a Royal Canadian Air Force WW2 bomber navigator shot down never to return from Europe, (does that make the the deceased my cousin, or uncle, or what?) to suffer such deep depression that prevented him from laughing for years, even from smiling most times, until because of my 'chutzpah' at the age of around 10, I broke that spell and caused him to laugh so hysterically he had to be taken home from work, ending the depression - a story I've already told on NT.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
3  seeder  Krishna    6 months ago

There was no time to dwell on Trump’s comments then, but there is time now, especially as he is again within reach of being commander in chief of the world’s greatest fighting force.

In military communities, and in most civilian communities, we revere the people who gave their lives for our country. We honor them and we take care of their families. Not because there’s something in it for us, but because it’s the right thing to do.

We do it because when they saw a need, they stepped up, and we owe them at least that much. We do it because we know our large, diverse country is held together only by an understanding of shared sacrifice. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
4  Kavika     6 months ago

Disgusting piece of shit. Those of us that come have served or come from military families cannot understand  such behavior.

HIs Memorial Day message was more whining the fucking pussy. Man up you POS.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
5  JohnRussell    6 months ago

"but, but but"...........

 
 
 
Drinker of the Wry
Senior Expert
6  Drinker of the Wry    6 months ago

Last week, like they have for 60 years, soldiers from the Old Guard, placed around 275,000 flags twelve inches from headstones in Arlington Cemetery.  Future losers honoring past losers, what could be more American.

 
 
 
Ronin2
Professor Quiet
7  Ronin2    6 months ago

And while on this Memorial Day where the Democrats and leftists only want one side of the story to be told.

Let us all remember how the current White House occupant who they put in place acted while returning dead soldiers from Afghanistan were offloaded.

Three days after the bombing, the remains of all 13 service members arrived at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer ceremony, where President Joe Biden was there to greet the families. Instead of feeling comforted, all three mothers described feeling disrespected.

"The administration didn't seem to know our story," Shamblin said. "They didn't seem to know Nicole's name, our names. People from the military certainly knew our story, Nicole's name, our names. And that was expressed to us in a way that felt very genuine and loving. But when it came to the people in suits, it felt disingenuous and hollow."

"First, he called me 'Ms. Lopez,' and I was not 'Mrs. Lopez,'" Briseno said. "And he just talk[ed] about his son and said how much he knows or he understand[s] how we feel because he lost his kid and he didn't feel -- he didn't know how we feel because he was there with his son when he passed. We didn't have the privilege. We received our kids in a casket."

Briseno added that she felt the president made the encounter "all about him."

"We had decided as a family that we would not meet with the president, so we were actually in a room on the side," Barnett emphasized.

The family ultimately decided to go onto the tarmac, where Biden checked his watch multiple times.

"It was just total disrespect," Barnett said. "It's beyond disgusting."

Raddatz recalled a prominent moment during Biden's exit, where someone in the crowd screamed, "Burn in hell."

"That was my daughter," Barnett said. "And she meant it."

But let's make this day all about Trump. Biden appreciates your support.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
8  Sparty On    6 months ago

I can’t believe these are the two our system gives us to vote for.

We need something to change.    

Drastically.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
8.1  seeder  Krishna  replied to  Sparty On @8    6 months ago
I can’t believe these are the two our system gives us to vote for. We need something to change.  

I totally agree.

Unfortunately "The System" doesn't change by itself. People have to want to make it change. .And then they have to take action.

Which, unfortunately, takes a lot of time and effort.

(In the distant past I had been very involved in politics-- working with local political party, and other political groups, etc.) 

But currently I have no interest in doing that. 

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
8.1.1  Sparty On  replied to  Krishna @8.1    6 months ago

The days of liking who you voted for are gone …. If they were ever here.    I remember people bitching about having to consider voting for Bonzo (Reagan.)

The more times change, the more the stay the same.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
8.1.2  seeder  Krishna  replied to  Sparty On @8.1.1    6 months ago
The days of liking who you voted for are gone

I sometimes think of it that often there's no onme I want to vote for-- so it then becomes a matter of which I candidate I feel the mostly strongly about..about voting against!

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
8.1.3  Sparty On  replied to  Krishna @8.1.2    6 months ago

lol …. Careful now.    
Many of the brain trust here will call you bad names for that. jrSmiley_9_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
8.2  seeder  Krishna  replied to  Sparty On @8    6 months ago
I can’t believe these are the two our system gives us to vote for.

A lot of people feel that way-- in fact I've seen more of that lately than probably any other period of my life.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
9  Kavika     6 months ago

My BIL and Red's sister live about a mile from us. He is a 24-year veteran of the army he was always Infantry, 3 combat tours, Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V for valor. 

His wife is a 20 vet of the US Army as well.

  • On Memorial Day morning around 7 am he got out of bed and toppled to the floor, EMTs were there in 5 minutes but he died instantly from a massive heart attack. 
  • He was a patriot, who asked little but raised a family and then a granddaughter, provided for them and just went about his life always willing to help those in need.

When I read about the shit that DJT says about the military my blood boils to think that he would disrespect those that did more than their duty and be called suckers and losers by someone that doesn't have the balls to man up on anything makes me wonder if what has become of our country.

 
 

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