A Well-Armed Militia: It’sTime for Veterans to Take a Stand
The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, a document I swore to uphold and defend with my life, states:
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Considering the current government assault on military benefits, and considering the administration’s response to the Benghazi attack, I am wondering just how much consideration some might give to joining our all-volunteer force in the future?
I wonder
too, if the Framers imagined a government “Of the People, by the people
and for the People” ever reneging on the promises made to those of us
who swore our lives to defend this great nation, including its supreme
law? Here’s something President Abraham Lincoln said about our commitment to the veteran in his Second Inaugural Address, on March 4, 1865, with the end of the Civil War in sight:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
This is a
promise, borne of a sense of duty and righteousness toward those who
bore the burden of supporting this great nation with their blood, sweat
and tears. This promise is the legacy of a nation born in blood and
preserved in honor.
This promise is the legacy of a nation born in blood and preserved in honor.
What is
happening now in the great halls of our government in Washington, D.C.,
is a desecration of that promise. A little here, a little there; capping cost of living increases
for military; eliminating this benefit for years for retirees,;reducing
pension growth for disabled retirees and survivors; preventing
Reservists from collecting retirement pay for decades; and reducing
retiree benefits by 20 percent. It all adds up to more than $6 billion
in “savings” over 10 years.
Tens
of thousands of my fellow returning veterans from the Global War on
Terror (still being fought world wide with U.S. troops in over 150 countries) will receive less and less of what we were promised.
Staff
Sgt. Alex Jauregui, a double amputee, disabled Army veteran who lost his
legs while on his fourth tour in Afghanistan, and who removed a barrier
to a military monument in Washington, D.C., during the government
shutdown earlier this year using his Segway, said in a “Fox News” interview that
he feels “betrayed” by the vote, and that his friends who are still in
the Army are considering leaving military service if the government
can’t keep the promises it made.
- Photo Credti: Twitter via @andrewbcreech
I
don’t own a gun, but I carried and used one in the service of my country
in a combat zone. I’ll be damned if anyone tries to infringe on that
right for myself or anyone else. It has crossed my mind in the past year
or so, with all the writing on the wall about reduction in military
benefits, that something is going to give: That something is the
relationship between the soldier and the civilian leadership of this
country.
I have
considered purchasing a gun or two, and not just for self-protection or
that of my family, but for the protection of my country and the ideals I
swore, and never rescinded, to uphold upon my enlistment into the Army,
and then again upon my commissioning as an officer. A well-armed
militia contributes to a secure nation, and allows the many hundreds of
thousands of veterans to continue to defend the Constitution, against
all enemies, foreign and domestic.
That’s a serious situation for serious times. On Dec. 17, the Senate voted through a two year budget package that
includes the cuts mentioned previously. The intentions of this
government towards its military are clear. Trust no one, believe
nothing, and only fools will join the military service. Why pledge your
life, livelihood and the protection of your family should they survive
you to such a noble cause if everything that was promised to you is a
lie?
Our
lives are the ultimate sacrifice, sacred, holy and complete. If that’s
not good enough to receive basic benefits, promised upon enlistment,
then the leadership of this country has surely lost its way. Like
Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, D-Day and 9/11/01; Wednesday, Dec, 17, 2013,
should go down as a day of infamy: when Congress voted to renege on
solemn promises to the defenders of our freedom and liberty.
We,
each of us veterans, is beholden to the promise we made upon swearing in
to uphold and defend the Constitution, and now we have to make good on
that promise. The question is, will our representatives in Washington
listen or will the well-armed militia need to be mobilized?
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