Don's Tuesday Column

          THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson    Red Bluff Daily News   5/28/2024

Military, law officers’ duty, sacrifice

We solemnly pay tribute to those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who’ve fallen in combat. They gave their last, full measure of devotion, patriotism, or a simple determination to not let their brothers down. As has been said by those better than me, including President Ronald Reagan, they gave two lives: The one they brought to the battlefield, and the one they would never have the chance to live—a vocation, a wife, children, as well as however many decades God would allow to enjoy their parents, who also lost lives of family togetherness.

I humbly share a searchable (by title) piece by combat veteran John A. Lucas, “Memorial Day: A Time for Recollection and Reflection, not Celebration,” posted at Bravo Blue, https://johnalucas6.substack.com/. Lucas recounts the story of a soldier: “Garney Burleson was a farm boy from North Carolina. He is not famous. You will not read about him anywhere other than here.

“He was a member of the elite aero-rifle platoon of B Troop, 1/9 Cavalry, of the famed 1st Cavalry Division, also known as the ‘Bravo Blues.’ Garney was killed in action on January 28, 1971, in Binh Tuy Province, Vietnam. He was twenty.” His last minutes in combat are described; tears flow for all fallen.

A lesser message is still of great importance for America’s future free of foreign domination. Such freedom may depend on the willingness of future generations to place love of country ahead of other pastimes and beliefs, and be willing to serve America militarily: “Can We Teach Our Children to Love America?” By Rick Moran.

He cites a portion of a Wall Street Journal piece by Peggy Noonan (with whom I agree here) on the insidious anti-American programming in our schools: “We live in an age—I’ll say this part quickly as we all know it—in which children are instructed in 100 different ways through 100 different portals that America is and always was a dark and scheming place, that its history is the history of pushing people around, often in an amoral quest for wealth but also because we aren’t very nice…

“Ideology and idiocy imposed this view, shallowness too. It began some decades ago but has speeded up and became more extreme the past 10 years. What does this atmosphere of unlove for America do to kids? To little ones 5 and 10 but also 15—what is its impact on them?” We can only hope for corrective, patriotic instruction to replace such ambivalence, even hatred, for America, and instill values of love and sacrifice.

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The local story of Luke Mobilio—whose father, Officer David Mobilio, was murdered at the fueling station on North Main Street—graduating from Chico State was inspiring in the pride and love between mother and son, and in memory of his dad. Likewise, Luke’s determination to serve in law enforcement.

The story was touching, informative. For recent members joining our community, for whom that dark episode is history, allow me to vent. The young man who murdered Officer Mobilio, in a cowardly act of “ambushment” shares much with the antifa/BLM rioters, lawless climate crazies, Occupy Wall Street, Hamas-nicks, and other scum whose ideology is “tear it down.”

He was a 2002 microcosm of the 2020 “summer of rioting and arson” after George Floyd’s death (from overdosing, not by a cop’s excessive force—fact), ginned up by anarchists, BLM fanatics and cop-hating Marxist agitators into saint-like status. Our hopes and best wishes for a long career of service for Mr. Mobilio in a profession—law enforcement—still held in high esteem by citizens of conscience.

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We had a chance to witness professionalism in the line of duty when we walked into a Jersey Mike’s sub shop in Bend, OR, to find the manager directing us away from a disheveled, scruffy, “dazed” guy who had wandered in and attempted to enter the food prep area. Having called authorities, his crew continued serving food that meets the quality pitched by actor Danny DeVito.

The manager resisted getting physical with the transient; that didn’t work for several encounters I had with such people as a fast-food manager. My point here is that within minutes several officers arrived whose actions and attitudes were spot on for dealing with such refuse-of-society.

The “show of force” was sufficient to encourage the transient to leave without physical force. Kudos to any cop or sheriff’s deputy who can navigate the complex world of ubiquitous phone cameras, and people ready to post slanted, clipped video of otherwise reasonable actions to protect peaceful folks from harm.

In my 30s and 40s I had numerous occasions requiring (in my mind, anyway) manhandling such people to throw them out of a restaurant before they became a threat to diners. Probably not the best way—could have been dangerous, actually—but it was that or let them spread their garbage 10 feet in every direction. It’s best left to officers, to be honest.