I am a retired United States Air Force and Veterans Administration chaplain. Since the Republican Party has no platform except to counter whatever the Democrats try to legislate, I thought I might have some fun with that theme because it’s depressing and demoralizing and needs to be ridiculed. I am doing whatever I can to keep January 6th REAL as distinct from what some are doing — dumbing it down, playing it down, and turning it inside out and upside down, and blaming it on Speaker Pelosi. What an absurdity. That’s why I write these days. January 6th is a national disgrace, a blot on our democracy. I took an oath in 1973 to protect the Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. I want my fellow Veterans to know what they did was not OK. They are not patriots. I don’t believe anyone has excused any Veteran from the oath we all took no matter how long ago it was taken or even if we are retired from the US military. I am bound by that oath for life. And I feel like every Veteran should be also. Storming the Capitol is the antithesis of what patriots are supposed to be about. Trump’s Chumps need to be stopped.

Mel Brinkley