Words We Say To God (My American Dark Age, Part Two.)

(As per regulation, some shit is about to go down. If you can't deal with that, here's a picture of some ferrets, move along.)

“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water (he cups his hands) and if he opens his fingers then, he needn't hope to find himself again. ~Thomas More, as depicted by Robert Bolt in A Man For All Seasons.

I lost somebody today. His name was Blizzard. He was an elderly rescue ferret, found in a box outside the local pet store during a snowstorm in January of 2019. Hence the name. He's the white ferret on the bottom of the pile in the header photo.
I did the best I could to give him a good life for the last year and a half. But for me to be in a position to do that, somebody else...didn't.

I don't know what Blizzard's 'real' name was, how old he was beyond a range of four to six years that the vet game me from looking at his teeth, and that from his condition on the day he came into my life, that he'd been fed some pretty crappy food.

His passing was not unexpected, but is sad, just the same.

I was taught that when you take on a pet, you're in it for life, theirs or yours. You have to be there all the way to the end, and so it was this morning.

That said, because of dealing with Blizzard's sudden turn for the worse yesterday I wasn't in any shape to write.

I've been slowly trying to get my thoughts together about the news that Russian military intelligence is paying the Taliban bounties for American troops that they kill and...then we find out that Trump and the Republicans knew this three months ago and didn't do shit about it, except to try and weasel Russia right back into the G7.

If I have to explain to you the volcanic level of rage that's been building up, you'll never fucking understand it. And I shouldn't have to. If you're an American, you should get this. Some things should not need to be said.

For myself, I'm a former conservative Republican, I'm a veteran. I served in the United States Air Force.

Integrity Above All.
Service Before Self.
Excellence In All That We Do.

Duty, Honor, Country, have to be more than just words.

If you take that oath to be a member of the United States Armed Forces, an Elected Official, or a Federal employee...you have given your word to uphold the Constitution and defend something greater than yourself. You have created a Law Of The Universe that only applies to you. As Robert Bolt wrote and Stephen Colbert famously quoted "When a man takes an oath, he's holding his own self in his own hands, like water..."

One of my bros died in Afghanistan in 2003, another came back with severe PTSD and would commit suicide in 2010 because of that and other issues. Yet another was wounded in Iraq in 2005 and became permanently disabled when the vehicle he was driving hit an IED. He lost the use of his right arm and would ultimately lose hearing in his right ear.

I'm asking you, as an American;

What are our lives worth?

What are our lives worth to our country, that it will not stand up against those who would put a monetary value on our lives and mark us as targets for simple murder for hire in spite of decency, honor, and the fucking rules of war?

You ever get the vibe that Republicans want to leave the rest of America in a box in a parking lot somewhere with a sign on us that says "Free to good home?"

In the last few months as crises pile up and their poll numbers tank and more and more people end up hating Trump...Republicans have made it crystal clear that they regard nearly everybody else in America as an enemy to be either destroyed or subjugated. From killing Grandma to restart the economy during the lock-down, to the George Floyd murder, to cops shooting at reporters, conservatives and Republicans have made it plain that either through action or inaction, they wish to destroy any aspect or institution of America that won't bend the knee...and by bend the knee I mean completely subjugate itself to the will of Donald Trump and to the constantly-shifting dogmas of modern Republicanism that flow from him to the point where any thought of anything else is considered treason. In effect, the Party wishes you to disregard the evidence of your eyes and ears as their first and most essential command.

And they're not afraid to throw the military under the bus, either.

You know how long I had to deal with constant "Support The Troops" jingoism that only got worse the less Republican or supportive of wars and shit that I got? Then there's the "Thank you for your Service" bullshit, not because the person saying it genuinely had anything invested, or really gave a shit, but because the second they saw my hat, or the ratty old BDU jacket that still has my name on it and the rank insignia of a Senior Airman on the shoulders, or one of several ratty old T-shirts, or whatever...I ceased to be a person and became simply a totem before which that was the proper offering. Fuck this stupid bullshit.

You know what I want? A government that treats its own citizens, all of them, like human beings and doesn't throw the troops or veterans under the bus because the current President has a massive man-crush on a dictator and likes the idea of being the bottom bitch.

But yet, at the same time as Trump and the Republicans want to take it from any dictator that'll give it to them, they want to punch down on just about every other American who is not massively wealthy or famous simply for being famous, and they are endlessly pissed that there is resistance to this most-shitty of ideas. They seem to think that everybody else should suffer in silence for the greater glory of Donald Trump and #MAGA and not even get to have an opinion about that. All other thought besides the Party's thought is treason.

There comes a point where you have to stand up. There comes a point where there is no living with or any more trying to reason with people who don't think you have a right to exist. We are fast approaching that point, where each of us will have to decide between America or Trump, and Republicanism or the Republic itself...and among other things we're going to have to vote accordingly, and probably even fight, to protect our own lives.

Because if we don't, these people would gladly tear America apart and kill millions of people, abandoning the rest of us like a ferret left in a box to die in the cold.

They're going to try it anyway, but they will be less successful if we all stand together. Maybe at this point "less successful" and a long grind of dealing with this problem is the best we're going to get.

But we still have to do it.

There comes a point where we have to stand up against all enemies foreign and domestic if we wish to remain a free people. If you don't think God, or history, or the Universe or whatever will judge you for what you do in this time...you might be part of the problem.

Just remember if they'll sell out the military, they'll sure as hell sell you out.

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution Of The United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, So help me God.

~United States Armed Forces oath of enlistment.

And note that this oath is quite similar to the one taken by elected officials.

We're either a nation of laws, or we're not. We either believe in the things we say we do, or we don't.

This isn't hard.

Part One.

Part Three.

Also, Read This.

What is an oath then but words we say to God? ~Thomas More.