I Support Maga

I support Maga, that is, my version of it. My version of Maga is the opposite of the one describing Trump and his followers. My version caused me to be choked up after reading about the life of Daniel Inouye.

My version of Maga was strengthened after reading a story about Daniel Inouye, a Senator in Congress from Hawaii. I knew who he was as a senator, but I knew nothing beyond that title. His story starts during World War II. Japanese Americans were rounded up and put in internment/concentration camps. They lived in camps with terrible conditions as they were taken from their homes and were forced to leave all their possessions behind. They were seen as the enemy. They were rounded up with no due process just based on their physical appearance. Eighty percent of qualified people of that group volunteered to fight in the war. They were only allowed to fight in Europe and not in the Pacific Theater where they were seen as a security risk. They were forced to ride through towns on trains in the USA with the curtains drawn so that they would not scare Americans.

As he was leaving home to embark on his journey to the front, Inouye’s father said, “You must not dishonor this country. If you must die, die with honor.” (Sounds like my father’s words to me about the family name). Trump used his family’s influence to avoid enlistment and sought several deferments. Do those internment camps for hard working values-driven Japanese sound familiar to the ruthless taking of our current immigrant population where 75% are hardworking Americans? I thought the criminals were to be taken first.

Daniel joined the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team fighting at the base of a hill with the German soldiers above them. The team would throw a grenade in front of them and inch forward to get to the Germans who had the advantage of being situated above them. Daniel was shot in the stomach. He was also shot in the leg, so he moved on his belly upward trying to protect his men. His right arm was shot off, but he continued throwing grenades to save his friends. He was finally taken to the hospital. While he was there, he befriended another soldier, a man named Bob Dole who lost the use of one of his arms and would later become a senator and a Republican nominee for President. Daniel was a Democrat.

The 442^nd all-Japanese Unit is the most decorated military unit of its size in history. 700 men from their unit died and 3600 men were wounded in combat. 3915 individual citations for bravery were cited.

When Danial was elected to Congress. He was the first senator to represent Hawaii. When he got to Washington, one of his first contacts was with Bob Dole. He wrote, “Bob, I am here. Where are you?” They were bonded as friends with the shared purpose of the war with differing political points of view. Daniel didn’t just draft legislation. He made a lot of friends in both parties.

When I finished reading about him, I was surprised. Grief takes many forms that can grab you in the most unlikely way and time. It’s the America of Daniel Inouye and Robert Dole that I want to see again in their lives of courage and character.

Grief is based on loss, When I was reading about Dole and Inouye’s life, I was grieving for what they represent contrasted with what passes for political life today. It was that loss that moved me.

We now have a President who is a felon, serial rapist, a grifter and a narcissist, who has never taken responsibility for anything he has done. He lies at the drop of a hat. He is a bully on a revenge tour, who is enabled by his followers. We have a Congresswoman who masturbated with her date during a theater performance. We have a group of appointees who are there not there for their character and skill but for their willingness to do anything that Trump wants. Is this what Daniel Inouye and Robert Dole fought for? Two men who were willing to give everything for freedom and liberty.

We need to have that spirit of nation first to make America great again. It’s called self-sacrifice.

“What will history remember with kindness? The leader with the most cunning tweets? The one with the most self-aggrandizing speeches and the biggest audiences? No, it is not the cynics who emerge heroes, but the people who spent their lives in service to others. It is those who fight for justice for SOMEONE WHOSE REFLECTION THEY DON’T SEE IN THE MIRROR.” – Sharon McMahon, The Small and the Mighty.

We are a nation divided because we have forgotten what greatness used to mean and should mean again today, that greatness found in the lives of two remarkable Americans, Daniel Inouye and Robert Dole from two different political parties.