I’m finding it increasingly hard to see the president’s face on television, especially after his remarks about our military service men and women.  His cruel remarks were not American and certainly not presidential.  Our military people sacrifice a great deal to put their uniforms on: personal commitments, family life, and even their own lives.

These brave heroes are not “losers and suckers;” they are the very salt of the earth, the real heroes of everything America stands for: God, country, and family.  As for what the president said about the late Senator John McCain, I can’t believe a president would criticize any soldier who was shot down and tortured in a prisoner of war camp.  Before the 2016 election, when asked how he felt about John McCain, the president said he liked people who weren’t captured and weren’t losers.  Recently, even the president’s military staff in the White House said he called soldiers missing in action “losers.”  You don’t call a person who’s willing to fight for his or her nation a failure, a loser, a sucker.  That’s deplorable.  When your words hit the fire, you don’t say you never said them.

All you have to do is watch videos of returning soldiers from serving in Afghanistan or any other place in the world to know the sacrifices they are willing to make for us.  We need to treat each and everyone of our military as if they were our own family, our own children.  Unfortunately, the little man in the White House doesn’t seem to know what courageous love is all about.  I doubt seriously that he could fill any of our service men and women’s shoes, particularly when you fight for each other and may see your friends die in your arms.  There is no greater love than to give up your life for another.

I realize that a lot of comments being thrown around today are primarily negative statements used to affect the November election, but I do know that the empathy and caring we need as a nation will not come from the little man.  Reacting to people’s questions as though only he is right and only he can make “America great again” is just plain conceit and uncaring.  America never was and never will be made by one man.  It takes all of us to form “One Nation under God.”  Divisiveness will not make us a great nation; unity will.  Believing in a greater power than ourselves will help build the kind of nation we all want to be.

And what’s more, no one, especially the president of the United States, has the right to put down the sacrifices and actions of our courageous military.  It’s insulting, demoralizing, unforgivable, and shameful.  We are still one government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Let no man put us under. Let no man feel as though he is more worthy of our praise and respect than any other American.

Anna Hartt