06-13-2016, 06:13 PM
I've heard a lot of veterans speaking out against Trump for President. Today, I read an Open Letter to Trump penned by a wounded Marine.
Snip:
First, a word about me (Justin Constantine). I’m an entrepreneur who regularly works on a number of veteran employment initiatives. I’m a Marine veteran and Purple Heart recipient who served in Iraq. And I’m a resident of New York City, your hometown, and a voter of New York State which you said you think you can win in November. I’m even an avid golfer who has hit the links at some of your courses.
Many of the outrageous statements you’ve made over the last year not only provide us insight into your mindset and desired agenda, but demonstrate what little regard you have for veterans and the national security issues which affect all of us.
Let’s take a closer look:
1. You do not understand veterans or value our service.
Do we need to hear anything more than how you described Senator John McCain, who spent almost six years as a POW in Hanoi after being shot down behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War? You said, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
2. You have no problem mocking a reporter who questions you.
Why should we think you would treat wounded warriors like myself any differently? Like many schoolyard bullies, we’ve all seen when challenged on virtually any topic, you quickly resort to personal attacks, shameless accusations and name-calling. We do not do that in the military. Although we may disagree with each other, we are taught very early on to respect each other.
3. We live and breathe integrity. You do not.
Each branch of our military holds integrity in extremely high regard and it is taught from the very first days of boot camp, officer candidate school or at the service academies. When you lie, it says something about your character. As General Peter Pace, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, once told me, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” When we fail to tell the truth, the results can be disastrous, and we are punished severely for lying. You, however, have consistently displayed a shocking lack of integrity and have lied to us over and over again.
4. You embrace world leaders who veterans view as threats to our national security.
It does not take a Ph.D. in political science or crisis intervention to understand that Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi were and are all very dangerous dictators with goals and agendas completely contrary to ours. In fact, both Putin and Kim are considered two of the most dangerous men in the world.
That being said, instead of denouncing all of them, you actually have done quite the opposite. You have repeatedly embraced Putin as a world leader whom you would “get along very well with.” And after Putin praised you as “bright and talented,” you declared that a great honor.
5. We celebrate racial diversity and recognize the value of a multi-cultural workplace. You are racist and cannot see past the color of people’s skin.
Studies have shown that the armed forces’ social hierarchy –- explicitly based on rank -– overrides many of the racial or gender biases in civilian society, and that promotion outcomes do not differ nearly as much by race/ethnicity as they do in civilian society.
We value this and are proud of it. And nine percent of all living military veterans are U.S.-born children with at least one immigrant parent. Yet, recently and quite publicly, you remarked that U.S. citizen and Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage presents a conflict of interest in his ability to preside over lawsuits related to your Trump University business because you are “building a wall.” House Speaker Paul Ryan quickly called your observation “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
What do you think about General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose parents immigrated from Jamaica, or former Army intelligence officer, Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta, whose family immigrated from Italy? And we all remember you launching your presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.
This letter is not a blanket statement of my support for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or any other presidential hopeful. It is simply a letter to you, Mr. Trump, letting you know you have lost my vote and you are never getting it back.
Full letter: http://new.www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...c496007949
About the author: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/mi.../85834748/
Snip:
First, a word about me (Justin Constantine). I’m an entrepreneur who regularly works on a number of veteran employment initiatives. I’m a Marine veteran and Purple Heart recipient who served in Iraq. And I’m a resident of New York City, your hometown, and a voter of New York State which you said you think you can win in November. I’m even an avid golfer who has hit the links at some of your courses.
Many of the outrageous statements you’ve made over the last year not only provide us insight into your mindset and desired agenda, but demonstrate what little regard you have for veterans and the national security issues which affect all of us.
Let’s take a closer look:
1. You do not understand veterans or value our service.
Do we need to hear anything more than how you described Senator John McCain, who spent almost six years as a POW in Hanoi after being shot down behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War? You said, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
2. You have no problem mocking a reporter who questions you.
Why should we think you would treat wounded warriors like myself any differently? Like many schoolyard bullies, we’ve all seen when challenged on virtually any topic, you quickly resort to personal attacks, shameless accusations and name-calling. We do not do that in the military. Although we may disagree with each other, we are taught very early on to respect each other.
3. We live and breathe integrity. You do not.
Each branch of our military holds integrity in extremely high regard and it is taught from the very first days of boot camp, officer candidate school or at the service academies. When you lie, it says something about your character. As General Peter Pace, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, once told me, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” When we fail to tell the truth, the results can be disastrous, and we are punished severely for lying. You, however, have consistently displayed a shocking lack of integrity and have lied to us over and over again.
4. You embrace world leaders who veterans view as threats to our national security.
It does not take a Ph.D. in political science or crisis intervention to understand that Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi were and are all very dangerous dictators with goals and agendas completely contrary to ours. In fact, both Putin and Kim are considered two of the most dangerous men in the world.
That being said, instead of denouncing all of them, you actually have done quite the opposite. You have repeatedly embraced Putin as a world leader whom you would “get along very well with.” And after Putin praised you as “bright and talented,” you declared that a great honor.
5. We celebrate racial diversity and recognize the value of a multi-cultural workplace. You are racist and cannot see past the color of people’s skin.
Studies have shown that the armed forces’ social hierarchy –- explicitly based on rank -– overrides many of the racial or gender biases in civilian society, and that promotion outcomes do not differ nearly as much by race/ethnicity as they do in civilian society.
We value this and are proud of it. And nine percent of all living military veterans are U.S.-born children with at least one immigrant parent. Yet, recently and quite publicly, you remarked that U.S. citizen and Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage presents a conflict of interest in his ability to preside over lawsuits related to your Trump University business because you are “building a wall.” House Speaker Paul Ryan quickly called your observation “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
What do you think about General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose parents immigrated from Jamaica, or former Army intelligence officer, Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta, whose family immigrated from Italy? And we all remember you launching your presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.
This letter is not a blanket statement of my support for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or any other presidential hopeful. It is simply a letter to you, Mr. Trump, letting you know you have lost my vote and you are never getting it back.
Full letter: http://new.www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...c496007949
About the author: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/mi.../85834748/