Veterans this is our election to make a difference

History
I'm not sure why but for the past few days I have mulling over this years Presidential election and The Battle of Athens, Tennessee that took place in 1946.

I don't think it has anything to do with any anticipated violence. Even in Athens it was not the veterans or the friends and families that supported them, that started the violence. It was the corrupt Democratic politicians and their minions that threw the first punch and fired the first shot.

What's in your heart and mind?
I guess it has more to do with the hearts and minds of the Veterans themselves. They had just fought a great war that they supported, with a belief that was rooted in the principals handed down by our founding fathers.

These World War Two Veterans returned home to a corrupt local government that did not represent the ideals and beliefs that they had fought for. The 3000 returned Veterans of McMinn County were immediately able to challenge the local politicians at the next election.

The violence that ensued was by the hand of and started by the County corrupt elite, that happened to be Democrats.

Those Veterans did not want violence then, nor do we need it now. It was set upon them by the criminally corrupt leaders of that county, that would do anything to maintain their strangle hold on the population they had taken an oath to represent.

A long time coming
There have been seven Presidential elections since we returned home. (Eight if you count Nixon's re-election). During these last thiry years, a lot of things have been said and done, concerning that Police Action and those that participated in it, volunterely or otherwise.

I am not going to re-hash that. It has been done quite extensively and often during the last three decades.

Some Commonalities
The parrallel I see between what happened in 1946 Athens and todays election is that we, the Veterans finally get a chance to be heard. We finally get a chance to make a differance. We finally get to vote our feelings for or against someone that took exception to our service.

The Swift Boat Veterans are speaking out with facts and clarity on what John Kerry was really like as a young Navy Lieutenant in the late 60's. Others are speaking out, reminding us of what John Kerry said and did during his testimony before the Senate in the early 1970's.

John Kerry has never been any kind of friend to the Military.
Yes he served in combat, short a time as that may be. Did he do it with honor and bravery? That is for his fellow soldiers to say and for the rest of America to decide based on his documented service record. (If he ever chooses to make it available.)

For the past thirty years many of us have suffered in silence, not because we were ashamed of our service, but cautious as to who we told we served. Most of the time is has been easier to remain silent than to chance what the re-action would be for speaking out.

Veterans this is our election
This time things are different, John Kerry has made his service the center piece of his campaign, and we should in some small way be greatful for that, for now we can be heard as well.

Yes Veterans this is our election. All of the things we have not felt comfortable saying and/or have kept to ourselves for thirty years or more can now be spoken of in the light of day. No longer do we need be proud in private.

John Kerry opened this discussion, this is our opportunity to speak up. This is our Athens, we have that power.

All we need to do is vote
John Kerry, combat Vet that he is, represents every person that ever despised us and our service. John Kerry is one of the very reasons we have found it better to suffer in silence than to clear the misconceptions held by those that believed John Kerry and Jane Fonda thirty years ago.

In the time since that Police Action and his testimony John Kerry has been a member of the United States Senate. John Kerry has voted against every major project that has helped modernize the way our soldiers fight. Every one of them.

He turned his back on us
John Kerry, combat Veteran turned his back on us thirty years ago and he has never to this day turned around to face us or offered any explaination why he visited those undocumented atrocities on those of us that served. Now he is using his service, and us, to seek the highest office we can bestow upon one person. He believes that we will blindly support another combat vet all the way to the White House.

How many of us have Kids in the Military now?
John Kerry was wrong about us in 1971 and he is wrong about us now. Many of us that are Veterans from that era have children in the military, children that would have been denied the necessary equipment to perform their service more safely, if John Kerry had his way.

Children that will most certainly be denied the Leadership, direction and equipment to succeed more safely if John Kerry is elected President.

We can and will make a difference
In McMinn county in 1946, 3000 Veterans and their families made a difference at the ballot box.

In 2004 how much difference can 30,000, or 300,000 Veterans and their familes make at the ballot box?

Veterans, November 2nd 2004, is our Athens, Tennessee. Without the violence that marred that McMinn county, we can make a differenc, we can be heard, we can speak with our vote and we can walk away from that polling station with our heads held high.

Hold John Kerry accountable for his actions on November 2nd then hold your head up.