Opinion: Honoring Memorial Day...Wait! What About the Children?
By Republic LIGHT (Latinos In Government Honorary Team)
When we think about Memorial day, we think about the beginning of summer, end of school days and pending graduations. Vacationing, bar-b-que and seeing our family comes to mind. To the Gold Star families that are left behind, it is a day of mixed emotions of fond memories shrouded in bitterness or sadness knowing their loved ones; who served our country bravely and lost their lives so we could have the freedoms we enjoy today, are no longer with them. The daughters that won’t ever caress their daddy’s face again after a long hard day from work or the sons who won't have mom there to cheer them on at their baseball games. Parents that have to watch as they lower their child into the ground and the sound of TAPS thinking they should have never outlived their children. We honor them all because when they took the oath, they swore to uphold the Constitution and defend their nation against foreign or domestic enemies alike. They knew the risks as they went to basic training, they were told war is ugly and they could lose their life, but they went anyway because they knew in their hearts it was their calling.
“Well someone has to go” you may be thinking. That may be true, however what surprised me even more is that we thank them for their service, yet when they come back home after being exposed to the horrors of war, we treat them as animals if they show minimal signs of PTSD. We mock and bully them as killers, heartless or mentally ill people. This nation trains them as weapons to fight the enemy only for them to come back home and find they are really just another number at the VA. “Just go get treatment” we tell them, as though they could erase the real bloody images in their heads by simply sitting hour after hour with a person that is only there, prescribing medication to numb the pain, sending them back on their way. They may have had years of going to other countries and sacrificing their Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas. We go about our daily lives as if they don’t even exist as we are still allowed to have peace of mind at the cost of their blood. I’m talking about the veterans that are alive and still among us.
We trust them to fight wars but we don’t trust them enough to be fathers or mothers after divorce hits them and they show signs of needing our help. So, the question is, are we truly honoring, or are we being hypocritical to hide the reality that the present administration really could care less about our military, who are our children and grandchildren may I reiterate. When are we going to wake up? How many more must die before we change the way we vote for people and hold them accountable in their office?
If the present administration in the state of NC or this nation truly wants to show how we honor the ones that have died serving our country, they should do so by helping the ones that are still with us. Our soldiers need to be engaged in our communities again, they need to be the heroes of our cities again. Then why not allow them to patrol our schools and keep our children safe? Are they not trained to defend us already? Who better to protect daddy’s little girl than a retired Sergeant or Petty Officer? My last two children graduated from school a decade ago and we never have seen anything like the crime increase we have presently seen being manifest due to the lack of support and staffing schools have. In the wake of what recently happened in Uvalde, Texas, as a present school board member I ask Davidson County to consider a contingency plan such as introducing concealed carry classes to our high school students in a safe environment to allow them to graduate with their permit in hand. I ask to train volunteer staff members to use deadly force if necessary if a shooter were to enter our school grounds. I ask that in the loving memory of our fallen we educate our children in their right to bear arms utilizing our veterans to educate and help patrol our schools. To teach that guns are not our enemy, it's evil men that plot in their hearts to execute evil towards others. I’ve never seen a car drive itself through a red light and kill. I’ve never seen a knife jump up and stab a person dead. This Memorial Day, say a prayer for a Gold Star family but start thinking of ways we can utilize the expertise of a veteran to truly start honoring our fallen.
Republic LIGHT (Latinos In Government Honorary Team)
Elizabeth Irizarry de Toro, M.Ed
Founder/Host
www.republiclight.org
