Good Mourning America!

My mother, God rest her soul, took my hand and led me, a seven-year-old, through the schoolhouse door in Flanders, New York. The one-room schoolhouse accommodated both First and Second Graders: First Graders on the left, Second Graders on the right, all taught by a single teacher. It was not only my first day of school, but also the first time I stood to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

First day of school.

I didn't know the words then (nor did most First Graders), but hearing them clearly spoken by our teacher, Mrs. Benjamin, and the experienced older students, as we all faced the flag, filled me with pride. Until then, I hadn't given the American flag much thought. But at that moment, I felt a connection to my dad and uncles, unlike anything I had experienced before. They fought in World War II under that flag. I was sure my dad knew all the words to the Pledge, even though I had never heard him say them. I was certain they all did.

Dad and uncle Wes, WWII, Italy.

In the Third and Fourth Grades, driven by a growing sense of patriotism and a desire to wear a uniform, I joined the Cub Scouts at my first opportunity. I became a new member of Den 4 of Pack 50. It was then that I first marched in a Flag Day parade, greeted by the cheers and applause of onlookers. Participating with my fellow scouts, all in uniforms adorned with our individual achievement badges, was exhilarating. We marched proudly as if we were soldiers - honoring the same flag, just in a different uniform.

Cub Scout Den 4

In the middle of Fifth Grade, my family moved to the south shore of Long Island, and I started attending Eastport K-12 School. By June, I was eager to participate in that year's Flag Day festivities. It was an extra special time because the flag was getting its 50th star the following month, on July 4, 1960. Not in my Cub Scout uniform, but still, I was proud to march dressed as a Revolutionary War era Minuteman. I was armed with my Daisy pump action BB gun. It wasn't loaded, but no one along the parade route knew that for sure. In Sixth Grade, I joined a Boy Scout Troop in nearby Westhampton and participated in scouting activities through early high school.

Minutemen, Flag Day Ceremony, Eastport, NY.

A year after high school, during the height of the Vietnam Conflict, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I was now a military man, just like my father and uncles had been. It was the first time I had taken an oath to serve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I proudly wore the uniform for fifteen years, representing the United States Air Force and the United States of America on assignments across Europe, as well as stateside.

Promotion to E5, Zaragoza AB, Spain

After fifteen years, I left the USAF as a Technical Sergeant and transitioned into the United States Army, receiving an appointment as a Chief Warrant Officer. I proudly wore the Army uniform for the next five years, representing the US Army and the United States of America on assignments in South Korea, as well as stateside.

Dad and me, Ft. Gordon, GA.

Throughout my youth as a scout and my twenty years of active military duty, I always loved and respected the Red, White, and Blue that symbolized our exceptionally great democratic nation and republic. I wore each uniform I had the privilege to wear with immense pride. I served, often at great personal sacrifice, out of a deep love and respect for my country and my fellow countrymen and women. Never once did I doubt the greatness of America. To this day, seeing the flag pass by in parades still gives me goosebumps. Each time I took the oath to the United States Constitution, I truly meant it. I have never wavered in that commitment. I have been out of the military since 1990. I have been a proud, patriotic American since my birth and intend to remain so until my death.

Certificate accompanying a flag flown over the United States Capitol presented to my dad in 1993.

My dad was proud to have been presented with this flag in 1993 at a reunion of fellow WWII veterans who had served with the 803rd Military Police Battalion. He remarked back then how bittersweet the gatherings had become: so wonderful to get together and reminisce once more, while so depressing to see fewer and fewer in atendance. The 1993 reunion was his last. He passed five years later. I then became the flag's proud keeper.

Alongside my continued steadfast patriotism and love for America, its flag, and its Constitution, it saddens me to say today that I feel a deep sense of sorrow over what has been happening in our country over the past ten years. Sorrow, in that there has been a growing increase in home grown, domestic threats out to destroy this great nation from within. The attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, occured twenty three years after my dad's passing. I'm so glad he did not live to see our nation's flag mounted on poles being used as weapons to assault fellow Americans doing their job of protecting the Capitol building and its occupants to help guarantee a peaceful and orderly transfer of power. He didn't fight in WWII to have that kind of absurd nonsense happen back here at home, and neither had I, having served twenty years on active duty.

No, I do not believe America needs to be "made great again." America has always been, is, and will forever remain great, provided that the sane majority stays focused and does not simply yield to the demands and actions of those who seem to have lost all semblance of sanity and patriotism toward our country, our flag, and our Constitution.

Once good people... sincerely patriotic people... those whom I had always proudly called fellow Americans, seem to have fallen under a colossal veil of deception. They have been manipulated and brainwashed year after year by conservative right media, primarily Fox News, playing Devil's advocate solely to enrich themselves. The relentless half truths and outright lies, the endless conspiracy theories, pounded into their minds, had made them easy prey for a cunning con man, a convicted felon, a traitor to this nation, to come along and sucker them into believing that America is sick and in trouble, and that only he holds the keys to fixing all that is wrong or broken.

The truth is, he is what is wrong with America today. In his slickness, he has played the system against itself. He is the great divider who has come to pit American against American. He has driven good Americans to commit crimes and acts of treason on his behalf. And his sole motive has been to enrich himself at the expense of the weakest, most vulnerable of our society. Nothing but vile negativism spews forth from his mouth. He promotes bigotry and racism with anger. His creed is clearly white nationlism and white supremacy. He is evil to his core and a menace to democracy, the rule of law, and the protection and preservation of the Constitution.

I stand firm in my conviction that there is only one America. However, there will continue to exist two Americas at constant odds with one another as long as there exists a MAGA cult. Those who follow the con man, who have been tricked into believing that his America is the only true America, are unwittingly participating in the demise of a truly great nation. I pray it is not too late for them to snap out of their MAGA-induced, hypnotic trance, and return to their senses, truth, and reality. These are perilous times. Through it all, the Constitution must be protected and preserved, not tampered with, modified, or ignored. I am afraid that if something isn't done soon to reverse the madness that currently grips our nation, those of us alive today may tragicly outlive the America of our childhood.

That this possibility could even remotely exist, is reason to mourn.

Me then.

Me now.