If you ever walk the halls of the Fort Meade VA Hospital, as I have many times, you will notice that the walls are decorated with many pictures of WWII soldiers, sailors, Marines and their battlefield scenes.
As I make my way to my appointments, I often look at those old photos and wonder what those 1940s heroes would think if they could somehow be time-machined into today's political situation. They gave their limbs and lives fighting the dictatorships of Germany, Italy and Japan.
Would they be shocked to find that a majority of latter-day veterans, active duty personnel and close to half of the U.S. population now vote for and support the same type government they gave so much to save us from? A government that has announced that it will not honor our own election results if those results don't favor it!
If they had it to do over again, would they think that 74 years of democracy was worth it? Or would they say, "Why did we bother? The enemy has won anyway."
Terry Painter
Rapid City, Oct. 23
