A Veteran’s Thoughts
By Ski Ingram
October 2021
September was a very difficult month for me. The month of August was hard enough with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, then came September and with it 9/11. I was working as a police detective across the street from the World Trade Center West at the time. I have a vivid memory of that day. I only had the strength to watch a couple of the ceremonies honoring those who died on that fateful day. I was very careful to not watch any of President Biden’s appearances.
Over the past few months, I have been studying our nation’s founding. I want to be prepared to address those who hate this country, those who believe in Critical Race Theory, the 1619 project, BLM and Antifa, climate change and mask mandates. I want to be able to hold my own when discussing the values of capitalism as opposed to socialism and communism. I want to be able to teach my family and my friends why I believe America is still a land of promise and destiny.
I began by completely re-reading the Declaration of Independence, something I hadn’t done in many years. It is an extraordinary document. It was unprecedented for its time. I believe that Thomas Jefferson was inspired by God when he penned those famous words. This document was the opening salvo in our war for independence. Independence was a concept that few people at that time in history understood much less experienced. I continue to be impressed and inspired by the 56 patriots who signed their names at the bottom of that document knowing full well that they were going to war against the most powerful government on earth.
The last sentence in that inspired document states, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Think about those words. How many of us would have that type of devotion to anyone or anything? Yes, we all say we’ll die for our family, but will you die for someone else’s family? I only know of a few who will. They are members of our military, our firefighters and our police officers. They go to work not knowing if they will return to their families at the end of the day. Our founding fathers, knew full well the consequences of their act. After signing the Declaration of Independence many lost their homes, family members and some lost everything they had in the war. However, they never lost their sacred honor.
Politicians today do not exhibit the trait of honor much less sacred honor. How many of our politicians, “our leaders,” will sacrifice anything they have for us? How many have told us the truth about Covid, Afghanistan, the border crisis, the so-called insurrection on January 6th, race relations, the rise in crime in America? How many have paid the price for these catastrophes? How many will resign or be fired for their failures?
How many Americans look at our current president and say to themselves “there goes Joe Biden, an honorable man? I believe he is in politics not to make America better, but to amass power and wealth. He came to the Senate with nothing and is now a multi-millionaire like so many other politicians in Washington. The past few months of his presidency have been devastating for this country, with all of the problems being of his own making.
Number one on my list of disasters caused by this administration is the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. That foolish act was instrumental in getting 13 of our servicemen and women killed. These deaths should never have happened. Second on my list is the horrific news about the drone strike where three adults and seven innocent children were killed in a bungled attempt by the administration to pay Isis-K back for their attack on our troops. I’ll only name a few more as there are too many to list them all. The stopping of the Keystone pipeline with thousands of jobs lost while at the same time the approval of the Russian-Europe pipeline. Biden has since asked OPEC to increase oil production so that America can meet its energy needs. The rising gas prices, rising inflation, the shortage of food and other goods, the continuing crisis at the border, the rising crime rate in every major city, the vaccine mandate and the confusion over how the pandemic is being managed.
Will President Biden, Vice President Harris, General Milly, Secretary of State Blinkin or anyone in the administration be fired or resign over these horrific events? I don’t think so because they have no honor. I also blame the members of the media, twitter, and Facebook for propping up this administration and trying to hide its failures from the public. They are all hypocrites, and liars, but that is a topic for another time.
Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1957–1963), was asked what was the most troubling problem he encountered while in office, He replied, “Events, my dear boy, events.” This statement sums up the problems with the Biden administration, it’s the events. He has no idea how to solve them. I believe this is part of his plan to fundamentally change America as we are no longer a country that is respected on the world stage and we are beginning to lose our status as the leader of the free world.
The political humorist, Will Rogers, said in 1929, “Ain’t it funny how many hundreds of thousands of soldiers we can recruit with nerve (honor). But we just can’t find one politician in a million with backbone.”
