Usually when I drive down Veteran Avenue in Los Angeles, I’m thinking about a hundred different things or simply listening to Ahmad Jamal perform his magic. Today was different. Today the sea of gravesites holding thousands of soldiers who defended our country in World War II struck me like a sledge hammer.
When I got home, I took out a pack of letters that my Uncle Mike had written to his mother, my grandmother. At the time Mike was a private in the army, 19 years old, in basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama and assigned as a lab tech to the Ninth Station Hospital.
I hadn’t been born yet.
I’d like to share an excerpt of a letter that he wrote Wednesday, January 14, 1942.
Dear Mom, (and everybody).
Well, a while back you all remember I told you we would be leaving here sometime in the near future. That near future seems to have come. Yesterday we started turning in unnecessary equipment, getting new and essential equipment, and packing what we have. Boy what a mad-house. Yesterday and today we worked like horses trying to get ready to move. Last night we turned in beds, mattresses, and linen and slept on cots; boy were they hard and was it cold; I slept maybe two hours all night.
We know we are leaving, as I said before, but where we’re headed for nobody knows. I believe that not even the officers know. It may be tomorrow afternoon, night, or Friday.
I want you to take it in the right spirit. I know you are all good sports and if there ever was a time when we all had to keep our chins up it’s now. This goes especially for you, Mom. There’s no use trying to fool ourselves; this is war and the most we can do is hope for the best.
I’ll keep you posted what happens. I’m sending my suitcase home because we’re not permitted to take them along with us – you know, “excess baggage”.
Well, so long for now. Love to everybody. Mike
Now, decades after Mike’s death, I so wish that I’d known him better. A young man not only trying to be brave for himself but also for his family.
So what brought all this up?
The answer is the looming Supreme Court decision whether Trump is fit to run for office. If Trump, a man who stated that soldiers captured in battle were losers, is allowed to run for office hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died fighting for our democracy will have died in vain. With all respect Dear Justices, Trump deserves only one place, to join his insurrection co-conspirators in prison. He might have appointed some of you to our highest court, but he does not deserve to be our commander in chief. He is a stain on the United States of America.
Art
#WWII, #Trumpinjail, #Supremecourt, #USinsurrection
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