A Call for Veterans to ‘Stand in the Gap’
If there ever was a time for America’s approximately 20 million military veterans to “stand in the gap,” it is now. Veterans are an important part of America’s warrior class and as such are urgently needed to combat and overcome the many forces currently arrayed against the nation.
By Paul S. Gardiner
If there ever was a time for America’s approximately 20 million military veterans to “stand in the gap,” it is now. Veterans are an important part of America’s warrior class and as such are urgently needed to combat and overcome the many forces currently arrayed against the nation.
Veterans also have a very important role to play in visibly and tangibly supporting our police and sheriffs who are experiencing unprecedented hardships and challenges. These hardships include increasing numbers of officers being attacked and murdered, mass resignations, low recruitment, and reductions in essential funding.
Veterans have much “skin in the game” regarding their service and sacrifices for America. Veterans swore an oath, a lifelong oath, to protect and defend the United States Constitution and, consequently, the American way of life.
When it comes to protecting their country with its cherished liberties and freedoms, veterans are not concerned about being called “racist” or other derogatory terms — duty, honor, and country are what truly matter to America’s veterans. The great majority of veterans realize that in reality, America belongs to ALL citizens, not just white people as constantly preached by members of various protest movements and radical left groups.
As of July 2020, it has become blatantly oblivious that First Amendment rights are under a concerted, severe attack. Many people believe these attacks are coming from both domestic and foreign enemies such as the violent antifa organization, certain members of the media, the entertainment industry, academic/societal intelligentsia, and certain off-shore wealthy individuals and entities.
Due to fears of being called a racist and/or experiencing various reprisals, there has yet to be a well-coordinated, comprehensive counter-narrative to the anti-American rhetoric spewing from the mouths of many American youth. Such a counter-narrative needs to be designed to win the hearts and minds of young Americans in such a manner that they realize the need to cherish the unique God-given freedoms and liberties that are guaranteed to them in America.
Also equally important is the need for a counter-narrative to the anti-American, socialist/Marxist teachings of many teachers and college professors. How this narrative will be delivered throughout America will require innovative use of social media and other outlets/delivery systems willing to cooperate.
Needless to say, it is way past time for the current volatile situation in America to change, and this article maintains that America’s veterans need to assert themselves to play a strategic leadership role in causing this change to happen.
It is well documented that much of the unrest experienced in numerous American cities is caused by young, well-educated Americans who believe they are standing up for social justice and the rights of minority citizens. They have been led to believe that America’s founding and subsequent constitutional republic was and is corrupt and illegitimate. For the most part, these beliefs are infused into these young people’s minds by many teachers and professors at numerous American colleges and universities, even at the secondary-school level.
In this regard, much recently has been said about the need for greater social justice in America. There is no doubt that greater sensitivity, fairness, equity, and respect between and among different ethnic and racial groups are truly needed. But is this all that social justice encompasses, or is there more to it?
As described herein, there is indeed much more to the meaning of social justice as it is taught and discussed in many American schools and colleges/universities today. As explained below, the subject of social justice has a meaning that is a truly sinister, anti-American meaning loaded with Marxist/communist ideology that is being infused into young minds.
Political commentator Dr. James Lindsay is a leading authority about what is being taught to many American youth regarding social justice and other associated subjects. Dr. Lindsay states the following: “Where Marxist revolutionaries believed that power was tied up in wealth, and so step one was to seize the means of production, their immediate successors of today, the critical revolutionaries, seize the means of cultural production to include education, art, media, language, and social media, to name a few.” A presentation by Doctor Lindsay can be viewed here.
Overall, Dr. Lindsay includes the subject of social justice under the banner of an ideology called critical social justice/critical theory. He offers the following observations:
American youth are being taught that social justice requires the rejection of human freedom for the greater good, which means we have to do away with freedom so that people do not make bad decisions and choose the wrong things.
American youth are being taught that they should not follow the dictates of their own conscious or their own best judgment. The freedom to speak, think, and make choices obscures and maintains oppression in society.
American youth learn that nothing can long survive a persistent enough, cynical critique and constant barrage of criticism. In this regard, critical theory can be applied to literally anything, and the cynical criticism does not have to be understood.
A key goal of the critical revolutionaries, i. e., numerous college/university professors and secondary-school teachers, is to “infect, unsettle, and disrupt traditional and entrenched fields by training students to be ‘human viruses’” to establish a new order.
Another key goal is to get “a large enough group of people to complain constantly that society is unfair and unjust and is cheating them — do not have to offer solutions, just keep complaining.”
The teachings of social justice “are just one more in a long line of ugly power grabs allegedly designed for our own good; human freedom needs to be replaced by something better, something where people in power determine what is right and wrong for everyone.”
Dr. Lindsay maintains that social justice/critical theory being taught to American youth “is a means of applying uniformed and cynical criticism to cause social and political revolution. It exists to limit freedom, to control thoughts and actions for our own good which it says we can’t be trusted to know.”
Critical social justice typically is espoused and taught by people sometimes described as self-righteous — people who are convinced that they are endowed with special knowledge and know what is best for everyone. Critical social justice seeks to change the very fabric of society — in other words, cause social revolution.
In conclusion, patriotic Americans have much work to do to combat and overcome the many years of Marxist indoctrination that millions of American youth have received. It is truly time to call out and confront the many Marxist elements and individuals teaching the youth of the nation and filling their minds with dangerous Marxist/communist ideology. Additionally, the nation’s police and sheriffs need much tangible support due to the continual attacks on and murders of officers, defunding efforts, mass retirements, poor recruitment results, and other negative situations.
In order to accomplish the above objectives and missions, strong, effective leadership is required. This article maintains that elements of the nation’s 20 million veterans need to step up and provide this leadership. America’s warrior class needs to be meaningfully engaged in the cultural hot war currently going on in America.
Among other things, an entirely new veterans organization may be needed to provide the necessary leadership and coordination with and among various patriotic individuals and organizations throughout America. Such an organization might be called Veterans Alliance for Law and Order, or VALOR for short.
For the sake of our great nation, it is time to make the above happen.
Paul S. Gardiner is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, Vietnam veteran, and member of the American Legion. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Alabama, and the United States Army War College. He is an avid lover of America with its unique God-given freedoms and liberties guaranteed in America’s constitution.
