Today, Memorial Day, the news wires are burning up with how our spiritually and morally tone-deaf POTUS managed to make the event about himself, tweeting about how “very happy and proud” he imagines our fallen soldiers would be with HIS leadership.
Amidst the storm of criticism that followed, Retired General Marty Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded with an exceptionally instructive counter-tweet:
This day, of all days of the year, should not be about any one of us. No matter how prestigious or powerful, no matter how successful we perceive ourselves to be.
Congressman Roe — if you are reading this — pay attention to General Dempsey’s lesson — it’s “not about any one of us.”
For those readers who live in Roe’s First Congressional District — take a look at your Congressman’s Memorial Day message to you and all his other constituents, and when election day comes around this fall, remember and think about what he said and how he said it.
Roe titled his message: “Memorial Day: Honoring Those Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice.”
But, after 140 words of boilerplate cliche about the meaning of Memorial Day, Roe then spilled over five times as much ink letting us know how “pleased” and “honored” and “proud” he is of himself as he boasted of various priorities and accomplishments of his tenure in Congress.
This, of course, from a Congressman whose ideology compelled him to vote against the James Zadroga 9/11 First Responder Act to provide health monitoring and other assistance to first responders, volunteers, and survivors of that horrendous attack.
Enough shame for one day. I’ll stop here.