That's What They Do!

That’s What They Do!

By Jim "Gymbeaux" Brown, November 10, 2016

I could have titled this, How I Became A Single Issue Voter.  I remember when I despised single issue voters.  Why would someone put all their eggs in one basket and then bet their life on that one basket?  Why would someone’s position automatically rule out all other issues a candidate might stand for but because you are so focused on just one issue that you cannot give the candidate credit for everything else; then vote for the opposition.  That was THEN, this is NOW!

Bear with me; I have to set the stage for why I believe as I do.  In THIS story YOU are a Coast Guardsman serving aboard a ship on the East Coast home ported in Cape May, NJ.  Your Commanding Officer receives the call that you MUST get underway in less than 60 minutes because someone is in distress in the North Atlantic Ocean.  As you set sail and leave the safety of the port, you realize that there are numerous smaller vessels all returning to port.  You wonder, what is wrong with THIS picture?  They are returning to port because the weather and the seas have turned ugly and you are putting out to sea.  Why?  Someone is in serious trouble and needs to be rescued and that is what you do, you rescue people.

Obviously this didn’t happen but let’s say it did.  While approaching the sailors in distress, suddenly your engines quit, something had caught fire and now you were in trouble along with those already in trouble and seeking your assistance.  You are pitching and rolling in very heavy seas with rain and wind causing your ship to be completely out of control and now bobbing like a cork on the North Atlantic Ocean.  What happens next?  You all could be lost at sea forever. 

The Commanding Officer and your fellow shipmates all seem to be calm and collected in spite of this turn of events, why?  Because they know for certain that the District Commander and the Commandant of the Coast Guard will find a way to come to your rescue; that is what they do (sounds like a GEICO commercial) but it is, that IS what THEY do.  No need to worry, they have your back.

Here comes the real problem.  Like so many of your shipmates, you all have parents, spouses, maybe children, brothers, sisters, etc all back on the beach.  When you joined the Coast Guard those family members all knew that in a few seconds, any situation could turn really ugly and the entire ship/boat/aircraft could be put in “harms’ way” and that would not be good for anyone.  So they worry, that is what THEY do, THEY worry.  But they also know that the District Commander, the Commandant, the Secretary of the Treasury (dating myself) and even the President of the United States all have your backs because that is what THEY do, THEY have YOUR collective backs. 

No problem, right?  But what happens if anyone of those people on the beach, the District Commander, the Commandant, the Secretary of the Treasury, or even the President of the United States chooses on this particular day NOT to have your backs?  What happens then?  One answer is that it will be reported on the news that you have been lost at sea and are presumed dead. 

At that point the entire nation will pause and collectively sigh, “poor souls” and then go about their business and within a week your passing would be nothing more than a memory, if that.  That is what the public does; am I not right?  You know I am and that is sad.

Then come those who start asking questions as to what happened to the ship, the crew and the people who initially called for help and who if anyone was ultimately responsible for this tragedy happening?  So the investigation begins.

The Commanding Officer and even the District Commander, are just two pawns in this overall story, the real players are the Commandant of the U. S. Coast Guard, Secretary of the Treasury and the President of the United States and if the responsibility for the loss of life and property can be traced back to either or all of them, all Hell would be paid by those holding those offices or at least I would like to think so.  The Commanding Officer and even the District Commander will more likely be held responsible because people tend to cover their ass, that is what most people do, cover their ass.

Meanwhile back home, the numerous family members remain grieving for everyone lost at sea; that is what they do, they grieve.  But they also want answers, how could this have happened and who is responsible?

What does the news media discover?  The President blames the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary blames the Commandant, the Commandant blames the District Commander and the District Commander is off the hook because he or she blames the Commanding Officer and a defective crew on a ship that was otherwise in perfect working order; it must have been “human error”.  They all do this because that is what they do, blame someone else.  But what about the Commanding Officer?  He cannot defend him or herself nor can the crew that was also blamed because you and the entire crew perished at sea and therefore cannot attest to what actually happened, can you?

NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED and I use the Coast Guard ONLY because I served in the Coast Guard for twenty years and am very familiar with the Chain of Command.  In reality you and the crew would have extinguished the fire and made repairs and continued on with the mission.  The Coast Guard investigators would have discovered the fire had been caused by a defective bearing in some piece of machinery not the crew, nor the Commanding Officer because that is what the Coast Guard so effectively does, it investigates maritime incidents to determine the actual cause of the incident.

Does any of this sound familiar because it should.  Something very similar to this fictitious situation DID HAPPEN yet so few members of the “public” cared that it happened nor did the public care about who was responsible for it occuring.  It was called Benghazi and Benghazi is why I became a single issue voter.  Unlike my ship story above where there were no survivors, in the case of Benghazi there WERE survivors so it would be impossible to blame the Ambassador who died in the attack because the survivors could not attest to a fictitious account of the attack or why 4 Americans had died.  So what do those in the chain of command above the Ambassador do when they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar, so to speak?  They do what children have done for hundreds of years when they are caught doing something wrong – they create a diversion THAT IS WHAT THEY DO!  The diversion in the case of Benghazi was a YouTube video THAT NO ONE HAD OR HAS EVER SEEN; AT LEAST VERY FEW HAVE SEEN IT.  Who is to know that the claim was not true?  Benghazi took place half way around the world, out of site of most people except of course the survivors of the attack.

In the 2016 Presidential Election I became a single issue voter because the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton AND, the President of the United States BOTH claimed that the YouTube video was responsible for causing people to start a spontaneous protest and to take up arms including hand grenades and grenade launchers and mortars as if those are readily available to residents who want to protest a video.  It was a very convenient story told by both the Secretary and the President at the time because that is what they do; divert the public’s attention from the real cause of the attack.  The public bought it because that is what the public does (who are also voters); it buys the fictitious stories that politicians feed them because people who hold such high office would never lie to us, right? 

Hold the phone!  It gets worse.  The Secretary looked into the “public’s” collective eyes and said the cause was the result of this horrible YouTube video.  The President said as much as the same thing and then even said it to the assembly at the United Nations not to mention we the public on our television sets; the attack and deaths were caused by a video! 

It is one thing to lie about keeping your doctors or even that you took a public office to help the public (you and me) because that is what they do and we the public know they are lying but still we accept the lies because that is what we do.  We know that most if not all politicians lie and lie frequently and repeatedly.  But to lie to the victim’s families of Benghazi goes WAY BEYOND being despicable.  It’s immoral.  It’s uncaring.  It’s irresponsible.  But is it illegal to lie?  There is probably no law that prohibits officials from doing what they did, lie.  Absence of a law however does not make what they did morally or ethically acceptable, at least to me.

Maybe you refuse to hold either or both the Secretary and President responsible for what they did or did not do but what about me?  That’s another story.  There is nothing I can do to hold the President accountable; nothing.  But when the Secretary later decides to run for President of the United States, there is still not much I can do other than to VOTE against her and one person at a time encourage others NOT to vote for her as well and why.

In 2016 I am so disheartened that those people in power who are ultimately responsible for deciding upon who will run for the highest office of the land can choose two candidates who are both so significantly flawed; how does anyone choose who they will vote for?  In my case and because of Hillary Clinton’s failure to have the backs of her employees in Benghazi, I became a single issue voter and my choice of candidate became extremely easy.  There was nothing she could ever say or do to change my mind or position.  There was no way that I could ever vote for someone who lied about Benghazi, later lied about what she had said, and then lied about being a liar.  There was no way I could ever vote for someone who so blatantly failed to have the backs of those people who thought she would and counted on her to do so.  There was no way could I ever vote for someone like that; no way!  Nor did I!

You can hopefully understand my total shock when approximately 60 million Americans voted for Hillary.  If Hillary had won, I would not have liked it but I would have accepted it and moved on; unlike the hundreds upon hundreds of Hillary voters that took to the streets to demonstrate.  What are they demonstrating?  What do they hope to achieve?  They are demonstrating because they do not like Trump, not because the election was fraudulent; someone please explain the logic of that to me.  What do they hope to accomplish beyond nothing?  As far as I am concerned they are all anti-American and some have even suggested that people on both sides will die because that is what they do, they create serious disruption and WANT TO cause bodily harm to those who have taken an oath to preserve their right to protest.

Is this the America that you live in?  Definitely not mine!  I did serve America by serving in the Coast Guard and I continue to serve America by voting every chance I get.  But unlike the morons now violently demonstrating, I accept the outcome of the elections and I move on hoping and praying that all will turn out okay regardless of who wins because THAT IS WHAT I DO!  You?