CNN has a report on the National Guards’ involuntary sojourn in Washington, DC:
With each phone call home, the troops describe a mission unlike any other.
One soldier from Tennessee told his father that from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. every day, his only task is to walk around Chinatown. Another service member from Mississippi told a loved one that she’d been repeatedly cursed at while on patrol. During a call to his wife, a guardsman from Louisiana said there was confusion about what the military was actually doing there.
“We haven’t gotten critically low on morale, but we’re falling fast,” said one soldier who, like others quoted in this story, spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak to the media and feared reprisal.
I think my fellow citizens in DC are making a mistake when they make the National Guard the enemy by yelling curses, because they are also our fellow citizens. They are in the Guard because they believe they can do good there – and often do. The Guard isn’t just a fighting force, but also fire-fighting and rescue and recovery and quite a few other things.
And now this is an opportunity to welcome them to Washington, explain that Trump’s orders are illegal and should be ignored by their commanders, and to build those bonds that will be important as Trump supporters are winnowed down to the hard-core grifters.
They should be reminded of the nature of our country, and not let it be remade into a Nation of Thieves & Victims by Trump. The Guard isn’t an invading force, but victims of Trump.
