by Jim Hamilton, Florence
Finally, a letter from a local veteran requesting respect and understanding from some of his fellow military comrades. I fully support retired CWO Mike Wilson (Bitterroot Star 9/1/21) asking that we all be tolerant of our friends and neighbor’s political views without demonizing them as being far left, communist or unpatriotic individuals.
I was a Mech Infantry platoon leader in Germany and later a rifle platoon in Vietnam and completed thirty years of total military service when I retired. I don’t agree with a lot of the letters flowing in weekly to the Bitterroot Star from some of the other Vets. But I don’t criticize them all as being fascist, racist, nationalist extremists either. They just have different beliefs.
If we’re going to pull together as a democratic society, we need to abandon the current “Tribalism” that governs our thinking when viewing other Americans with a different ideology. Otherwise, we’re doomed to fall apart as a nation, joining past empires that failed and fell into the scrapheap of history.