With Memorial Day approaching I am thinking about our veterans. I recently finished watching a powerful streaming show called Masters of the Air. During each episode young American pilots and crews climbed into B-17 bombers and headed for Europe to try to stop Hitler and his German followers. On some missions, 80% of these men never came back. Yet more kept climbing into those planes, with courage and conviction.
These thousands died to save our democracy, our way of life. I had known this growing up, as my father spent over three years fighting oversees during World War II. That’s why I was distressed when on the TV news the other night I saw four men, wearing red hats, interviewed at a political rally, who said that if their candidate wanted to be a dictator it was OK with them. One of them said, “I’m not happy about it, but our country now needs a dictator.” Really?
These men call themselves patriots, but those who fought in our Revolutionary War to break away from the dictatorial King George, would turn over in their graves if they heard these comments. Washington himself, even after being urged to remain President, and assume an almost King-like role, refused because he knew that our democratic experiment was based on a complete rejection of this idea.
Rejecting dictators should not be a partisan political issue. We should reject anyone, of any party or ideology, who thinks they are above the law. In a time when dictatorship is on the rise all over the world (Maduro, in Venezuela, Orban in Hungary, Xi Jinping in China, and Putin in Russia) we must find the courage and commitment that those men in the 100th Bomber Group had and defend our democracy at the ballot box. Do not vote for anyone who believes we “need” a dictator, even for one day. It’s the last thing we need.
Warren Rosenberg
Crawfordsville
