Vets for Freedom were banned from the high school where Pete Hegseth graduated because, even after a scaled back version of their presentation that left only the discussion of service and sacrifice by three recipients of medals for bravery, some parents and the very active local "anti-war" groups protested the appearance as "political" and "propaganda". The event went ahead at the local American Legion where some two dozen high school students skipped school to hear it. The later evening event was also jam packed. Powerline and Blackfive have reports.

1943 A local marine, sailor and soldier appeared at my uncle's school in California. They had a giant assembly with the entire school in attendance, the marching band and various local dignitaries. The vets gave very brief statements and asked the local community to buy more war bonds and support the war effort.

Inspired, my uncle's boy scout troop took up the call, sold war bonds, collected scrap metal and rubber and various other items for the war effort. In 1944, his troop won an award for selling the most war bonds in California. My uncle received a special award for selling the most in his troop. He was the fourteen year old son of a German immigrant.

He later went on to serve in the Army of Occupation in Germany and in the Korean War. I have his medals, DD214 and various other items from his service. Most of all, I have his flag in a shadow box on my wall.

What is the difference today?

Andrew Bacevich only had part of the equation right. America has seen its military as a tool to use more often. He refers to it as a love of military force. At the same time, since Vietnam, we have divorced our love of military force from the love of our soldiers and the love of this country. That is the danger we have yet to perceive in our nation because, when you no longer see it as an extension of our people, the will of the people, or the service of the people of this nation it becomes a tool that is dispensable along with the people in it. That danger leads to the common thought today that we can use it up, use the people up and it doesn't matter if we win or lose because its value, the value of the lives of these men and women, is diminished against political and economic necessity of one political movement or another.

In that depreciation of value of our military and its service members is the depreciation of value of our nation, democracy and freedom. What then is our nation worth? If it is worth so little, if our people are worth so little, how will we continue to survive the next century or against any foreign or domestic enemy? Is our nation also dispensable?

It is as John Edwards called it, "Two Americas". But, it's not the two Americas he imagined of rich and poor, educated or uneducated, Democrat or Republican. It is the two Americas where one believes in supporting their country and their troops and the other does not. Where one believes that a nation at war is all of our responsibility and the other thinks of the many ways it can avoid that responsibility. Where one sees being a citizen soldier and a veteran as the epitome of honor, integrity and service to our nation and the other thinks it’s a the choice of uneducated, under employed losers. That it is now a "political statement" to serve your country in war time instead of a sacrifice to defend this nation and every citizen in it.

Where a soldier cannot even return to the school that he graduated from, that helped to shape his personal beliefs that led to that service, to share those same ideas and honor because it might make some other students believe the same thing is possible or even desirable.

A soldier cannot ask for the support of his nation because it makes people uncomfortable to think they actually have some responsibility to him, to others like him and to this nation. He is now spreading "propaganda" instead of instilling a belief in our nation and its values. He is like a contagion that people fear will “infect” the young with the same ideas as if those ideas were a disease to be wiped out by quarantine and inoculation of the “correct” ideas.

There are two Americas and they have existed for over thirty years. One America believes in the United States, freedom and democracy, believes in this country as the best place to live, the better of any nation or political system and the other one thinks its a bunch of hooey that could be easily replaced by some other system, only believes in America when it does what they want or when the politicians they vote for are in power.

A soldier, a veteran, cannot ask his nation for support or speak at a local school he graduated from, but a congressman can call them cold blooded murderers on international television.

Shame on the school, shame on the parents who protested and shame on these people who think they can say what they want but should not have to hear from the very people that gave them the freedom to have their children at school, free from the fear of attacks, free from want and free to speak.

We live in two America's now. The question is: Which America is going to insure we survive another two centuries?