It’s long been a tradition of mine to spend the morning of Memorial Day alone, sitting in a quiet spot, and thinking about those who “gave all.” I think a bit about friends and acquaintances whom I saw pass during my military career. I silently thank them.  This year, I was a bit more melancholy than usual. I think I am experiencing the same moral outrage I have oft heard repeated from fellow vets.

“Why?” “What was it all for?” “It was a waste of lives.” I am steadily, and increasingly, becoming more disgruntled with the behavior of our countrymen.

Like so many others, I am dismayed because this is not what I was fighting for. To me, that’s where the shame of all these lost lives resides. All of this hatred and blatant criminal activity. The lack of respect and common decency. The loss of our manners, values and morals. Chiefly, the ruling principle of extreme selfishness is appalling. There’s a change in the air, and I fear the worst. I fear this isn’t a passing phase. I fear this is a permanent change in the character makeup of our people.

The divide in this country has become too large to resolve. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I wish it would hurry up and get here. One way or another, let’s have it out and be done with it. Let’s have one final act of outrage and get it out of our systems so that rational thought can prevail. Then, let’s heal and rebuild.

Let’s push America’s reset button and set the country back on track. It will take an event that large to do the trick. We have to hit our national “rock bottom” before we can work our way back up the ladder to become the leaders of the free world we once were. Then, maybe those lives lost will have meant something.