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March 6, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: I am a retired Air Force pilot who flew in the Vietnam airlift, Grenada, Desert Storm and the Faulkland War. I love my country, and the people in it, regardless of their background, financial status, skin color, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. I abhor modern politics, and declare myself a moderate independent! Choices this year are alarmingly poor!
I had remained disconnected from the upcoming election, or more specifically, those running in it. However, when Trump recently tried to compare himself to the Russian patriot and martyr, Alexei Navalny, something very primitively visceral turned over inside my soul. I felt deeply disgusted, and could not walk away.
If you choose to vote for Trump, I respect that you are exercising your right to vote, but I will certainly not be voting for your choice. I will still call you my friend; you are still my countryman/ woman and one I “flew” for long ago. I will, however, be appalled if Trump wins. The reasons why are as follows: I don’t want a president to represent our country who has over 90 felony indictments; who led an insurrection against our government; who stole classified documents from the White House; who never recognized the winner of the 2020 presidential election, despite the 86 federal judges who declared that he had lost; who called our “Greatest Generation” patriots buried on a quiet hill overlooking Normandy “losers and suckers”; who was convicted of rape and bragged about grabbing women by their crotches, because “he could”; who disparaged our Vietnam hero John McCain, who spent over five years being tortured in a prison in Vietnam. I don’t want a president who mocks folks with disabilities; who tried to convince the Georgia election officials to illegally manipulate ballots; who shirked his duty to serve in the military during Vietnam because of an ingrown toe nail; who rants and raves constantly about himself instead of stating what he can do for his country!
My friends and countrymen, we are heading down the “Highway to the Danger Zone!” We are in full afterburner, with emergency warning lights and horns blaring! It’s time to pull hard and steer clear of a catastrophe! PHILIP CLAYTON Retired USAF colonel Rockbridge County
