i-voted-sticker

Election Day signals the end in most state of these campaign ads where candidates twist facts to make it seem as though they are your best friend while their opponent is a felon. Here is my Election Day story from the past.

In 1971 this country realized what a mistake it had been made to send troops to Vietnam. I wore my Army uniform twice in public during the two years I served as a result of the military draft. The first time in 1969 I had no choice as a lowly private. You weren’t allowed to leave Fort Dix unless you were in uniform. I was spit on by a woman in the lower east side of New York. The second time was Election Day in 1971—this occasion I chose to wear my Specialist 5th Class dress greens to the ballot box. I hated the war and what it did to friends and strangers: those in the military who gave so much and those who shunned us because we served. No one sent saliva my way. No one thanked me. I voted with a sense of completing my civic duty coupled with the pain of alienation.

Today there is no draft. People don’t spit on veterans. But we continue to send troops in harm’s way without justification or a long-term strategy. I did not find this “point” on the ballot today.

Leave a comment