COUNTRY ROADS TRIP REPORT

COUNTRY ROADS TRIP REPORT

By Andy Weddington

Monday, 06 June 2022

The constitutions of most of our states assert that all power is inherent in the people; that ... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed. - Thomas Jefferson 

It's fitting to publish today. 

Anniversary of D-Day: Courageous warriors under strong leadership who on a Tuesday 78 years ago stormed fire swept beaches and jumped from planes in a desperate fight to restore and preserve freedom. [A great uncle, a teenager, was in the first wave hitting Omaha Beach. Somehow he survived the war without earning the Purple Heart. He never spoke of his experiences to me.]

How odd our nation recognizes (their) bravery and victory in ceremony today while dishonoring (their) sacrifice by current events -intentional hardships, unnecessary as they are, attacking the American way of life. 

A slight breeze flaps the small American yard flag and waves the bunting adorning our front porch.

Our home honors courageous patriots. 

Yesterday we meandered some 400 miles, give or take, of country road in South and North Carolina.

In South Carolina through Kingstree (a town first heard of more than 50 years ago for finding, with metal detector, a long lost high school class ring), Coward (how fitting considering current events), and Tatum (claims population of 75).

In North Carolina we stopped for stretch break and chow at Mason's in Aberdeen. Delicious biscuits and (naturally purple) grits. And hometown hospitality. Go!

We saw rural schools, fields of play (some with lights), factories and warehouses, small businesses and old dilapidated ones of yesteryear, modest to mansion living, and lots of old community churches with well-groomed cemeteries honoring their dead.

American flags everywhere - in those cemeteries, atop poles in front of homes, in brackets attached to homes, great big ones - cloth and paint - on sides of barns, and car window decals and bumper stickers. 

A 'Don't Tread on Me' flag or two hoisted on poles.

Marine flags in most every community. 

And there was the occasional Trump flag, sign, or bumper sticker. 

One bumper sticker Biden - and it was anti.

There was not anything rainbow. Nothing. 

A clear day so no chance in the sky, either. 

The rainbow happened to be on my mind for the poster the commandant of the Marine Corps published last week of a helmet with a clip of bullets colored as rainbow stuck in the cover band marked with the words "Proud to Serve."

There's been much written and said about that helmet.

Nothing supportive has crossed my ears and eyes. 

Marines angry and embarrassed. 

Has the commandant and Sergeant Major Marine Corps put that silly image on their challenge coins?

Why not?

Would they?

Walk the talk. 

Proud to Serve. 

All Marines claim proud to serve.

Why rounds as rainbow?

Cohesion?

Well, that didn't happen.

Hundreds of miles covered in six hours and nothing rainbow. 

But there was plenty of signs of proud Americans. And proud Marines. 

And that aligns with the macro math; percentage of population. 

I hold dear my service. Proud to be American, Marine, wear the eagle globe and anchor, and sport red, white, and blue and scarlet and gold.

No need for any other qualifier nor descriptor. 

A qualifier or descriptor distinguishes. It separates. Separating is contrary to cohesion. 

Not two years ago the commandant, through a deputy, approached the retired community to help with recruiting. Times are tough. With retention, too. Self-inflicted problems. 

But soon thereafter the commandant began discharging hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of courageous (disobedient) "recruiters" - who now will never advocate service. Nor will those who they discourage in turn advocate service. And so it goes. The other services did it, too. And still.

Dumb. Really dumb. 

I stopped advocating service for no longer recognizing the Marine Corps. Without credibility about the experiences a young person would face, I could not in good conscience recommend.  

Marines 78 years ago this date fought a determined foreign enemy in the South Pacific. [Another great uncle, Marine comms lineman, was knocked from a pole by a Zero. He was paralyzed a while but survived.] 

Now domestic enemies attack the Corps while on watch oath takers cower and abet. Or so it appears to the objective - embarrassed and angry. 

Hundreds of thousands if not millions along yesterday's route, and elsewhere, when angry enough, even if armed with nothing more than a soft bristle toothbrush, could easily overwhelm any force. But the Founding Fathers gifted arms. So see, again, the opening words of Thomas Jefferson. 

Americans are not going to abandon their Constitution.

A white flag is not in the forecast.

If only a tiny bit, yesterday's travel along the asphalt rainbow was encouraging.

Mister commandant and sergeant major, hit the road. 

The inevitable next war - here or there - a storm followed by rainbow sorts it out. 

End of report.