Gratitude Monday: paying the bill

We live in parlous times for democracy, with an ignorant, corrupt, venal, narcissistic kleptocrat in the White House, supported by GOPig and Evangelical Taliban sycophants who hand out mulligans for his every violation of the ten commandments and seven sins, as long as he shows signs of implementing their dreams of white supremacy and suppression of women.

It was clear from the 2016 election that Cadet Bone Spurs views the men and women of our armed forces as his own personal collection of toy soldiers to be deployed in whatever way will amuse him most at the moment—whether it’s missile strikes in Syria or a $30M military parade “bigger than Macron’s”, the Bastille Day parade (an annual event that honors France’s independence, not an individual head of state—whether competent or not) he fidgeted through last July.

Thirty million for a parade while 40,000 veterans are homeless.

And whether or not our draft-dodger-in-chief takes time out from golfing, watching TV and tweeting to show up at Arlington National Cemetery today, thousands of people who were not raised by rabid wolves will be there (and at other military cemeteries), communing with friends and comrades, or just honoring the fallen.

You know—those whose sacrifices over the centuries paid the bills for our Constitutional freedoms and our political follies, extremists and moderates, reactionaries and progressives alike. They lie in their tens of thousands around the globe, where they fell, and where they were returned home. I’m grateful for them all, for the graces they bought for us all.

My brothers and sisters—I give you heartfelt thanks, I apologize that we’ve made such a hash of it, and I live in hope that we will find our way back to the democracy you served with such devotion.