While Trump’s derogatory comments towards veterans have the blood boiling, I’d like to address what is - despite Trump’s repugnance - a common, seldom spoken thought among too many of the so-called “elite”, including those who support veterans: that military service is merely

a regretful backup to more remunerative and fulfilling occupations. (Analogously, the same has been said of teachers, without whom we would have no economic prosperity, democracy, or civil peace.)

While acknowledging that many lower-income kids with scant opportunity before

them join the military, let’s not overlook those with every break, privilege, and opportunity in the world who join the military.

From John F. Kennedy and his brothers to many of my U.S. Naval Academy shipmates (and rivals at West Point, Air Force Academy, etc.) - sons and

daughters of ambassadors, senators, and CEO’s who had been accepted by every top civilian university - to even the late Pat Tillman who gave up his successful NFL career to serve in Afghanistan in a Ranger unit, losing his life in battle, American history is filled with men and

women across the socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic divides who recognized, as Hamlet, their ephemeral time on this earth and hoped to make it far bigger than classic self-interest could yield. Without them, alongside those less advantaged who have served, together, where would

we be as a nation, and where is it, supplanting an ethos of service to country, community, and humanity for unadulterated self-interest, that we think we could go?

Joe Biden’s son, Beau, son of a U.S. senator and Vice President, honorably served our nation overseas in military

uniform. For Beau and all those who have placed a premium on service to country - whether as military personnel, first responders, teachers, nonprofit warriors, et al - I’ll be voting for his father on 03 Nov, 2020.