Mr. President, enough already.  Please stop in the name of Myeshia Johnson and all the Gold Star Families for common decency and honor.  I’m repeating this blog for the 4th time since 2016. Unfortunately, look where we are now; I fear you will not change. But nothing beats a try.

Super Bowl Sunday is one of America’s most united days, all because of the bliss of football.  All through the season, we support our specific teams and then come together one day of the year to cheer on one of two outstanding teams. But the polarization of our society with demagoguery of a violent nature has overtly slithered into America’s most celebrated pass time.  On Sunday, October 2, 2016, Joseph Bauer, a former U.S. Marine and Raven fan, was struck intentionally in the head by one of two football fans of an opposing team. The fact he had served our country in the military hit home for me. During the 2016 presidential primaries,  it didn’t help that statements of a violent nature were blatantly boosted by a candidate for president of the United States.    “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.” The violence induced by your divisive language and disrespect directed at Gold Star families is despicable.

At the age of seventeen, Mr. President, after being systematically trained to swallow the bitter pill of racism, a purposeful act of knowing my place, I joined the U.S. Navy. The oath I took was as follows:

The key phrase is and was at the time for me, “So help me, God.” As a child, I was taught never to use the Lord’s name in vain, and that lying was a sin displeasing to God.   If you make a promise, especially to God, with any sense of morality, there’s no compromise.  Faith is not just a Sabbath day ritual. What the beautiful children of this great nation deserve is a conscientious presenter of moral scruples, not a presenter of hate and division.

“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me, God.”

Every service member must promise and adhere to the Oath of Enlistment for his/her entire military career. From the Oath, you can see that you will be defending the Constitution and not a person.

Mr. President, immigration and the institution of slavery were the mechanisms that built this nation.   Recognizing inequities, amendments to the constitution were necessary, guaranteeing all, regardless of race, creed, color, or sexual orientation, the freedom of speech and religion. Mr. President, this means Christians, non-Christians – Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and other world religions, including Atheist and Agnostic or no religion at all.  Serving my country gave me the opportunity to attend church service for many different denominations. Although there are various versions of the Bible used, i.e.,  KJV, NKJV, NIV, ESV, there was a commonality: the presence of love and respect residing in the soul.  When people are exploited and divided as you do, it creates fear, causing neighbors to distrust neighbors and communities to lock down.  A calamity I refer to as “virtual people rustling.”   A modern-day form of slavery, which one seems to relish.  Slavery was an institution abolished due to military necessity, a growing anti-slavery sentiment in the North, and the self-emancipation of many who fled enslavement, the loss of the South’s enforced workforce.  But racism, the fundamental element, a virus of ideological discourse, has been uplifted through your manipulation of facts, always with a finger-pointing dogma. There is “The Man in the Mirror.”

Through the wisdom of my elders, I learned to never judge a book by its’ cover or use name-calling with a degrading pretense to achieve an objective. Demeaning someone with expletives was the same as pointing.  Words can be a reflection of one’s self, and three of your fingers will always be pointing back at you.

A little of African American history, Mr. President, must be stated.  Back in the day, to frame a mindset of resistance and overcome the never-ending rain of indignation, some blacks played the “Dozen,” upon each other, a game of spoken words between two contestants, usually in front of a small audience. The participants in the game focused on the opposing player’s competency, appearance, intelligence, etc. As time elapsed, comments in the game ventured into sexuality or “yo mama jokes.” it then became the “Dirty Dozen.”  Nowadays, it’s no game; it’s offensive.  Anything in life you practice, you become good at, even “Fake News” and “Alternative Facts.”  The art of Rapping, another African American creation, was born in Harlem,  New York, requiring coordination of the mind and the tongue, the linguistics of black communication, which now grosses billions of dollars.  Rapping in its’ lyrics was initially a cry for help from the inner-city youth.  The words soon turned to Gangsta rap, a subgenre of hip-hop music in the mid-1980s, as society continued to ignore their cries.  From the introduction of drugs, the failure of “Trickle Down Economics,” and the siphoning of jobs to overseas markets, the prisons began to fill as black lives didn’t seem to matter.  Then, there came the unadulterated unequal treatment in the court system, a subject for another executive enlightenment.

In reality, Mr. President, you played the dozen in the primaries, and your opponents couldn’t hang.  And you have continued in your presidency as if it is a game.  Sparked in large part by your election, millions of women demonstrated around the world on the 21st of January to send a bold message that women’s rights are human rights.  One week later, thousands protested at airports nationwide against new immigration orders.  Movements Don’t Start with a Strategy; They Start with a Moment.  The March on Washington, which resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1965, was a movement created by a moment on Blooded Sunday.  The world saw Alabama State Troopers shooting tear gas and wading into a crowd of nonviolent protesters with billy clubs on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people, of which Congressman John Lewis was one of the injured. He wears the scars to this day.  Upon his refusal to attend your inauguration, you played the “Dozens” again with a statement of alternative facts.  Be advised, Mr. President.  History has a way of repeating itself.

I have high regard for the office of the presidency and in keeping with the oath I took, dedicating 22 years of my life.  I will never play the dozens on you.  I am a member of the Mature and Silent Generation; in my youth, I played the “Dozens” and was pretty good.  In the words of Denzel Washington, “Anything you practice, you can get good at, including BS.”  But Mr. President, there is a time and place for everything.  Words of bigotry and hate are out of place as the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s greatest military.  What makes you think in the next three years of your presidency,  your words and actions will galvanize our nation’s youth to serve behind a vindictive personality.   I’ve learned forgiveness thru the words of God, as did the families of the Charleston Church shooting.  It’s something only people in the spirit can understand.

Therefore, I pledge I will never yell, “You Lie.”  As long as you are in the office, I will never question your birth, make fun of your hair or hands, call you names, or bring attention to your facial expressions.  I won’t talk about your sexual demeaning of women or the marking of the disabled.    I won’t even question your tax returns because I want you to succeed. You are the president. If you succeed in creating jobs while keeping America safe, improving the quality of life for all, especially the poor and the declining middle class, and claim the fears and the hatred, then and only then will America succeed. Respecting a position does not necessitate respecting the person. There’s a moral obligation involved.  As human beings, one unto another, we earn each other’s respect.  There is such a thing as empathy and shame, two small words but powerful when they are embedded in the soul.  As a veteran, I was saddened to hear a potential Commander in Chief make a statement considered beyond the pale about a slain Muslim American soldier.  Then there was a disparaging comment about a prisoner of war; Senator John McCain, another hero, a man who took the same oath as I.   You, Mr. President, are on the far end of the spectrum, falling into the category of not having a clue.  Running a business requires investing money for a return.  You do not run the United States of America.   As Commander-in-Chief, you are supposed to lead by example by investing in people.  People, by human nature, will respond positively when you put their best interests at heart.  Furthermore, it’s a role model issue for America’s children are watching.    Don’t call me a loser; expect me to serve you breakfast in bed.  America is not an Empire, and you are not an Emperor.

There’s an old African proverb: “The enemy outside cannot hurt you if there’s no enemy within.”  Re-worded so that it can be better understood;  “The enemy outside cannot hurt you when there’s unity within.”  You have the power to eliminate the atmosphere of frivolity, leadership by threat, and diversionary politics.

It’s all about the man in the mirror.

Henry L Faulkner  NCC  US Navy  Retired

“Guidance Against the Odds” ©2016