Here I Stand

A year or so ago, I wrote, The America I have known, the Constitution that I gave oath to support (over 38 years of military service) is not about building walls, but about climbing over them and breaking them down wherever they discriminate, produce hate or fear; wherever such walls block the road to freedom, justice, harmony and peace among peoples.  When we, as Americans even think of building “great, great walls,” we have become what we have always been against!

I’m against the “great, great wall” on the southern border, and it doesn’t make any difference who is going to pay for it.  I’m against building walls to separate  white people from brown people and vice versa.  I’m against building walls to keep people in poverty.  I’m against building walls that intimidate, whether built of concrete, steel, attitudes, law, fear, prejudice, bigotry, lies,  religion or lifestyles.  I’m against walls built to keep people in and against walls built to keep people out.  I’m against walls and I’m against fences, too.  I’m for border security.  I’m for national security.  I’m for democracy.  I stand with Dennis Kucinich who wrote, “I take issue with many people’s description of people being ‘Illegal’ Immigrants.  There aren’t any illegal Human Beings as far as I’m concerned.”

Now, I’ve been around for a few years and it is probably time for me to hush up and let others take the helm.  But that would be a cop-out.  I’d rather be like the ninety-five-year old man who told his doctor that he had pain in his right knee and that it hurt when he moved it.  The doctor examined the knee and said, “You are 95 years old.  You’re bound to have some pain in your right knee.  That’s what happens when you get old.”  The 95-year-old patient looked at the doctor and replied, “But my left knee is 95 year old too, and it’s just fine.”  At the moment, both my right and left knee are just fine and I think I still have a mind—and as long as I can, no matter how old I may be, I’m going to continue to say what I’m against and what I’m for.  As Thomas  Jefferson suggested, in matters of style, I’ll swim with the current; in matters of principle, I will stand like a rock.