Politics Plus

This is a story of two very different veterans, both of whom have something to contribute to the discussion about who gets in, and who stays in, the US.  Both served in combat. Both served in Iraq. One is a USMC Reservist who has twice in eight years of service been called to active duty for "surges." The other is a 21-year career Army soldier.

Let's start with the latter – Republican Representative Steve Russell of Oklahoma's Fifth Congressional District.  Our friend Vivian B, according to her Care2 profile, lives in this District, and is to be congratulated for having a Representative who, though far from perfect, as we shall see, has demonstrated some ability to think rationally and even compassionately.

Last Wednesday, on the floor of the House, Rep. Russell gave a passionate floor speeech decrying xenophobia, for all the right reasons.  I cannot do better than to re-quote parts of that speech to give you the flavor of it.

"“While I have tried to focus my comments on actions that we should take to eliminate ISIS, one action we should not take is to become like them. America is a lamp that lights the horizon of civilized and free mankind,” he said on the House floor.

"“The Statue of Liberty cannot have a stiff arm. Her arm must continue to keep the torch burning brightly,” Russell continued. “If we use our passions, anger, and fear to snuff out her flame by xenophobic and knee-jerk policy, the enemy wins. We have played into their hands, period.”

He then presented quotes from Congress on a similar bill to the SAFE Act:

I want you to listen carefully to these statements by Members of Congress in response to a refugee bill–not an illegal immigration bill or permanent residents, but refugees, a refugee bill. Listen to these comments by Members of Congress about people fleeing for their lives.

Fighting immigration is ‘the best vote-getting argument . . . The politician can beat his breast and proclaim his loyalty to America.’

‘He can tell the unemployed man that he is out of work because some alien has a job.’

'Congress must ‘protect the youth of America from this foreign invasion.’

‘American children have first claim to America’s charity.’

He then revealed that all these quotes were from 1939.  "While it was true that Germany was, indeed, a threat, the refugees were not. They were 20,000 children."

With regard to American principles:

We must not become them. They win if we give up who we are, and even more so, without a fight.

We guard our way of life by vigilance. We must be watchful. We have to have each others’ back and be alert to dangers around us. We must speak up when we see something unusual. By maintaining who we are amidst the threat, amidst the hatred, amidst the trials, we win.

I particularly liked his remark – bold indeed, I think  – about "the critic sitting on the couch in his underwear eating his bag of cheese puffs … pecking out hatred and vitriol on some social media."

You can read the whole speech.  It is marred by Obama-baiting and mis-attribution of the causes of Daesh's gains.  It is even more marred by the fact that after all this, he voted with his party anyway.  But there is some good stuff.

The second veteran, Ivano Rodriguez, was brought to the United States, specifically to Virginia, from Ecuador when he was a very young child.  He is not undocumented: he has a green card.

Upon graduating from high school, he signed up with the USMCR.  He served in Iraq.  He also served in Afghanistan.  While in Afghanistan, "his platoon was deployed to a Taliban-heavy village near the Pakistan border, where three of Rodriguez’s buddies were killed, and three others seriously wounded, in a suicide bombing. Several others, including Rodriguez, were casualties of a different kind: While sound of wind and limb, they suffered serious and lasting psychological trauma of the kind that fuels the horrifying suicide rate among combat veterans."

The VA prescribes (pushes) antidepressants, dream suppressors, pain pills for PTSD symptoms.  These have side effects.  Large numbers of veterans commit suicide as a result of these side effects.  Unreliable reporting of who is and is not a veteran make it nearly impossible to determine exactly how many, but enough not to be dismissed. 

While attending the Art Institute of Washington (that's State, not DC), he learned of medical marijuana for PTSD.  Medical marijuana is of course legal there, and his use of it is by prescription (even though the VA will not cover it).  The problem is, as a green card holder, he is still considered to be under the jurisdiction of Virginia, and it's not legal there.  And, under a 1996 law (ADEPTA) which was a reaction in part to the Oklahoma City bonbing in 1995, foreigh nationals, even with green cards, can be deported for "aggravated felonies" or crimes of "moral turpitude."  And both of those terms are vague enough that they can almost be anything the feds want them to be.

Mr Rodriguez didn't join the military as a means to citizenship, as many others have, though that seems to me a little like, as Mitch D implied in his "On The Edge" comment for 11/19, undergoing a near death experience and major surgeries as a means to meeting cute babes.  But I digress.  Mr. Rodriguez joined the military because he was young and wanted adventure.  But having served myself, not even in combat, my feeling is than any non citizen who serves in the US military is automatically entitled to citizenship, and we should by God give it to him.

His applications for naturalization have, however, been repeatedly rebuffed on the grounds of "bad moral character."  Oddly, the feds have previously cited only his juvenile offense record – which was certainly not a bar to him serving in the Marines.  And the Marine Corps is fairly picky.

His most recent brush with immigration autorities was in 2014 when he was returning from a trip to visit family in Ecuador.  A Customs official flagged him for misdemeanors for possessing marijuana and "drug paraphernalia" and initiated deportation proceedings on the grounds that any narcotics offense involved "moral turpitude."  (Funny, I always thought "moral turpitude" meant a pedophile at least.)  Apparently someone in the process had some intelligence, because at his hearing the presiding judge dismissed the complaint "without prejudice."  (The article I cite says "with prejudice," but the I listened to the linked radio interview, and what I heard was "without.")

Having survived this hearing, however, does not mean he is safe.  While he remains a non-citizen, Rodriguez lives with the possibility that the government he served may seek again to banish him as punishment for using an effective but unauthorized treatment to address the lasting trauma he experiences as a result of that service. Because of the federal government’s irrational commitment to pot prohibition, Ivano Rodriguez could still be forced to choose between death and exile.

This might be a good time and place for me to mention a petition sponsored by VoteVets in support of refugees.  It too has a very personal story attached (kleenex alert).

The Erinyes in Greek mythology are usually called "The Furies" in English. But the only day that begins with an "F" is Friday, and I certainly don't want to ruin our fun by putting this post there. So, "Everyday" it is. I don't anticipate any shortage of material, more's the pity.

Anyway, traditionally there were three of them.  In fact there may have been more than three – their number was never actually specified – but in the Aeneid Virgil hands us three names: Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone.  These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."  Their function was to keep humans in line, and I must say we could use their assistance today.

Alecto ~ Few things in modern governance have been more unceasing than the FBI's persistence in seeing citizens' legitimate concern about government overreach as dangerous dissent likely to lead to the overthrow of the country.  From Emma Goldman to Martin Luther King Jr to Occupy and beyond, the FBI has worked diligently to surveil and if possible undermine any efforts to humanize our country.

The "School of the Americas" is an "academy" which trains mostly right wing Latin Americans to become successful dictators or dictators' key staff.  You can check out www.soaw.org to get a feel for the SOA's "accomplishments."  SOA Watch was established to shut it down.  So, naturally, the FBI has been surveilling – what else? – SOA Watch.

Records are now available documenting the FBI's tracking of SOA Watch for the last TEN YEARS.  Full report and documents at http://www.justiceonline.org/soaw.  We need Alecto to turn her attention to the FBI.  Now.

Megaera ~ Grudging an education to any child who doesn't fit some arbitrary guidelines of being "perfect" might be a project for Megaera to put a stop to.  To quote the New York Times, "Charter schools are privately run but publicly funded and admit children by lottery. Similar to a traditional public school, a charter school must provide a seat to a child who has enrolled unless the student withdraws, is expelled, turns 21 or moves out of the state. Charter schools must follow strict guidelines before formally expelling any student, and Success (Academy Charter Schools) has done so only once since its first school opened in 2006. But Success’s critics accuse it of pushing children out by making their parents’ lives so difficult that they withdraw."

What makes this convincing is the recent discovery that at least one of these charter schools owned by Success Academy had created a "Got To Go" list.  Nine of sixteen children on the list subsequently withdrew from the school.  Which does not guarantee that the other seven will stay.

If charter schools are able to use techniques such as this (and there are many other techniques) to push out certain students, whereas public schools must accept and keep every child, higher scores on standardized tests by charter schools looks very much like phony statistics.  Megaera – please look into this

Tisiphone ~ This really does appear to be an instance of "vengeful destruction."  In fact, until Megan Dixon (no relation) came forward, there appeared to be no reason why the automobile in question would even be stopped.

Megan is engaged to Chris Few, the father of little (6 years old) Jeremy Mardis, who was shot to death while buckled into the back seat of the vehicle.  Six years old.  Incidentally, autistic.  Shot by Officer Norris Greenhouse, Jr, and Officer Derrick Stafford.
Seems Officer Greenhouse was a former high school classmate of Megan Dixon, who (apparently out of the blue) had started messaging her on Facebook.  Greenhouse went so far as to come by the home where Megan and Chris were living.  Megan told Chris the circumstances, and Chris advised Greenhouse to leave his fiancée alone.

Then the traffic stop.

Chris Few also was shot multiple times, and as of Monday was still hospitalized in "fair" condition and had not been told of his son's death.  Not that he would have been medically able to attend the funeral.

For a wonder, the two officers mentioned (two of the four who took part in the stop) are in jail on one million dollars bail under charges of murder.  That, however, is a far cry from being convicted.  Tisiphone – help.  Please.

SOAW photo from a previous year's event held in Austin, TX.  Successs Academy photo from the New York Times.  Jeremy's funeral photo from Louisiana newspaper The Advocate.

Excerpts reblogged with permission from "Well, this is what I think"

Dramatic stills and videos have emerged of dozens of IS hostages – some covered in blood – being freed from an IS compound in a daring joint-operation raid in Iraq. This is unashamedly good news for the hostages and their families and friends, not to say the world in general.

But what needs to be said immediately, however, is that a highly decorated US commando died rescuing people he didn’t know, from countries other than his own. He died utterly unselfishly, to prevent a great and murderous wrong.

The world is quick to criticise clumsy, inept or morally questionable US use of force, and so it should be. The lumbering giant of a nation often gets it wrong. It should be equally fast to praise America and Americans’ preparedness to put their own lives on the line to help others, and, if necessary, to make the ultimate sacrifice.

US Special Operations Forces and Kurdish forces stormed the IS-run prison freeing some 70 captives who were apparently facing imminent mass execution….  Very sadly, the raid resulted in the death of Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, the first American death fighting ISIL and the first to die in Iraq for some years.  His body was returned to his family on Saturday in Dover, Delaware.

… Let us … pause for a moment and think about Sergeant Wheeler. For the real story of this raid is surely his story.

As has been reported, he hailed from a thinly populated, economically struggling patch of eastern Oklahoma.   Joshua L. Wheeler had a difficult childhood and few options. The Army offered an escape, but it turned into much more. He made a career in uniform, becoming a highly decorated combat veteran in the elite and secretive Delta Force….So what made Sergeant Wheeler an instinctive hero? We will never know precisely the confluence of his youth and how it affected him….

One of Sergeant Wheeler’s sisters, Rachel Quackenbush, said her parents were “mentally gone.” …. It was her brother who held the family together, making sure the younger children ate breakfast, got dressed and made it to school — even changing dirty diapers. On his own initiative, Mr. Shamblin said, he held a variety of jobs, including roofing and work on a blueberry farm, to bring in a few crucial extra dollars….

But at Muldrow High School, where he graduated in 1994, people saw no sign of the turmoil at home.  “He was always funny, even mischievous, but always the guy who seemed like he had your back,” said April Isa, a classmate who now teaches English at the high school. “Most of our class was cliques, but he wasn’t with just one group. He was friends with everyone.” ….

“He could never say much about where he went or what he did, but it was clear he loved it,” (his uncle, Jack) Shamblin said. “And even after all that time in combat, there was such a kindness, a sweetness about him.”

On visits home, either to Oklahoma or North Carolina, he focused on his boys and his extended family. Ms. Quackenbush said that when he would have to leave on another deployment, he would claim it was just for training, which she understood was untrue.

“He was exactly what was right about this world,” she said. “He came from nothing and he really made something out of himself.” ….

We should all consider how lucky we are that men like him are still looking after the weak, the displaced, and the threatened. It is easy to be cynical, or even to resort to a sort of knee-jerk anti-Americanism, when we seek to unpick the news, or to make sense of the geo-politics. But as we today contemplate a family in mourning, even as we gaze in distress as the seeming never-ending morass that is the Middle East, let us also state this simple, shining truth.

One man died last Thursday, but 70 were saved from certain death.

Sleep well, Sergeant. We will not forget you.

(Blogger and author Stephen Yolland is an advertising professional and a poet.  Please click through for the complete story.)