Yesterday, I saw Virgil. Snow had been predicted for the day, but the prediction changed the day before to just cloudy all day with a high expected of 29°F (I think that’s about -2°C but I did the math in my head, so feel free to correct me if it’s wrong.) The sun was visible in Pueblo, but frankly it wasn’t much warmer if at all, and prison visiting rooms in CO are always beyond chilly. Not that that stopped us from having fun with cribbage. Virgil had the best hand of the day – a triple run of 3 (15 points), and one of the other two card made 15 with the card there were 3 of, so that was 6 more points for a total of 21. It’s tough to beat that, though of course it is possible (just not today.) The drive was pretty easy both ways – a good thing since I had only about 3 hours of sleep Saturday night. Don’t expect me to reply to comments early today. Upon return, my inbox was full of mail, but mostly cyber Monday stuff. Move On is starting to plan for a third No Kings event next year, but it’s in the planning stage – no date has been announced. I did find one article and one video which struck me as noteworthy.
I was going to start this take with “Speaking as a veteran” – but I realized that I’m really not sure whether I’m speaking as a veteran, or just as a decent human being who has priorities. Either way, I want to point out that most people (including all decent people) grasp that active duty military and veterans deserve our respect because they are willing to risk their lives for their country (which is also our country.) And if that is so, how much respect do we owe to Afghans who have not just been willing to, but actually risked their lives – for their country in the long run, but by aiding our country in the short run? I have read letters and articles written by American military who were the recipients of aid from Afghans. These letters/articles are always passionate; they are filled with examples of things these Afghans have done to help or save the writers, and they have usually been written at times when the US government have been (at best) slow walking giving them aid, giving them admission here, or some other thing which they have, in fact if maybe not on paper, earned. These letters and articles have made me passionate too. To accept assistance from someone who is putting their life on the line to keep our troops from being massacred, because they believe in us – then throwing them under the bus- is something a decent person would not do to an animal, let alone another human being. No, Afghans who have helped us are not all perfect – they are human – and humans are not perfect – but punishing all of them for the bad actions of one is disgraceful. It is inhuman. And it is un-American.
This is the video. It’s under a half hour. Joyce’s experience is mostly in DOJ (when we had one) while Ryan knows more about war crimes and international law. Both are IMO easy to listen to.
