1. Why do I #Resist ?

My family has always fought for what America truly stands for. Once you dispose of all the rhetoric, at its heart, we should stand for ensuring everyone's voice be heard. We have screwed that up a lot, but somehow, in our bumbling way, we have tried to

2. ensure that people's voices be heard. And now, as in the past, a great attempt is being made to silence them, in the worst way possible. The land that we are holding in trust for our children and our children's children is being destroyed by greed and negligence. The people

3. We are supposed to protect are being forever damaged by those who should be "men" but instead use their power to hurt the innocent. Particularly children. To me the most important, most sacred thing in the world is a child's innocence, but not everyone shares that value.

4. Some seem to value it not at all, and many of them are currently in power. All over the world, over more than three decades of service, I have seen the terrible horror in the eyes of children who have lost their innocence, often in the worst possible way. Assuming they lived.

5. And I see it here. More and more. Children being ripped from their mothers, children being neglected and then used for the worst possible ends. And too many stand idly by. So I #Resist . Because fighting is what I know and have always done. Because over my multiple combat . .

6. Deployments, I have seen the worst the world has to offer, and do not want to see it here. And because on some of them, I have done some of the worst things a human being can do, and this will always stain my honor and my soul. But I have always tried to protect the innocent.

7, Particularly the children I will never have. Often I have failed, and now I am old, tired and battered. But I am not yet dead. I #Resist because as long as a single scrap of will and ounce of breath remains, I will fight. Not because I am some sort of hero, and my ideals . . .

8. were mostly sacrificed in the jungles and deserts of foreign lands. But because I still think the innocent are worth protecting, and it may be the only decent thing I ever do with my life.

9. If you read this, and choose to respond, please do not thank me for my service. You have no idea what I have fucking done. Just know that even in a country that is falling apart, a man with no faith as most people would describe it can still believe in something. So I #Resist

10. This was in response to: https://twitter.com/brycetache/status/1046391627894476802

Sure. Thank you for asking.

And I have found a better woman than I deserve. She makes all the difference.