Veteran Public Comment from Ensign OttWe Owe Them All Ensign Ott, US Navy
Why All The Shouting
I am a veteran of the United States Navy ... and ... I am a victim.
Whether you read this or not will not alter the fact that you are a victim as well.
Trust me, the flame inside me to serve you, to protect Freedom, Equality, and Fairness
for one. and for all, still burns brightly inside my soul.
And if there were a discrete enemy that I could take up arms against, I would gladly
throw all I have, including my own life, into destroying that enemy for you. For me. For
all of us and our posterity.
Our enemy is propaganda, wielded by the very worst among us, plain and simple.
Ard, despite my fervent desire to act for you; to protect and to serve you, I cannot
destroy, I cannot vanquish, I cannot obliterate this enemy for you.
You and I are well and truly victims.
But I am no idnger a defenseless victim. I realize that propaganda is my, and our, true
enemy. And NOT my fellow citizens, even as badly infected as they presently are by it.
So infected, in fact, that many of us, TOO many of us, are walking zombies, oblivious to
the truth and completely unwilling to even seek or consider it.
What, you ask, are the mighty weapons I have found to help fight the good fight? To
vanquish this darkest of threats to our collective lives well -lived?
The entire arsenal needed to promote and protect Freedom, Equality, and Fairness - the
very pillars of democracy - can be summed in one singular word...
UNDERSTANDING.
All of us have just a very few issues, maybe only one or two, that get us very frustrated
or angry. Abortion rights. Gun controls. Economic inequality. Deficit spending.
Racism. Immigration. These are just some examples.
But unfortunately for us and our political community, which we also call democracy,
these issues and many more are currently submerged in OCEANS of propaganda.
Why all the shouting? Because it is our EMOTIONAL reaction to issues that controls
how we see our neighbors, our communities, our country, our world, and how we vote at
the ballot box.
For the issues that get us EACH most upset, EACH of us must take up the effort to fully
understand those issues - to ferret out pro and con, good and bad, for and against.
Why is the effort to understand so vital?
Because the worst among us use the tools of propaganda, amplified by the
megaphones of our political parties, bought -and -paid -for media outlets and the
algorithms of the Internet, to manipulate us. They use propaganda aimed at leveraging
our emotions to control us ... to drive our behaviors.
We are being driven like cattle to slaughter! And if we are being driven somewhere, and
we are, should we not make damn well sure that where we are being driven IS WHERE
WE ACTUALLY WANT TO GO? WE need to understand the issues - pro AND con,
good AND bad, for AND against. We NEED to understand WHY WE are so angry and
frustrated about a particular issue. Just as importantly, we NEED to understand WHY
OTHERS are so angry and frustrated with our views!
You will NOT like the truth as much as you liked the propaganda. But that does not
change the fact that the truth is the truth and must be dealt with accordingly,
Propaganda tells you what you WANT to hear ... that every problem is someone else's
fault. No need for you to think or fix things because some smiling, glad-handing ass will
fix it all for you! Oh, and please ignore the bastards pulling the levers behind the curtain!
The truth tells you things that you often do NOT want to hear ... that we are all at fault for
everything, at least to some perhaps very subtle degree. The truth will tell you that we
have to be responsible to ourselves and to each other. We can fix anything. But we
have to actually think and act. We simply cannot afford to ignore the man in the mirror.
When we have taken the few hours needed each month to push through the
propaganda for the few issues important to each of us, to fully understand pro and con,
good and bad, for and against, our perspectives will change, markedly for the better.
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First, each one of us will almost certainly realize that at least one of our most closely
held or longest held beliefs, born out of ignorance, very likely a false construct of the
propaganda, was absolute bullshit.
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Second, we will come to understand that our neighbors down the street very ikely are
not the goose-stepping nazi racist pricks nor the baby -eating commie socialist assholes
that the oceans of propaganda had promised. We will realize and embrace that we
actually share huge vistas of similar viewpoints, mutual interests and goals.
In fact we will come to understand and embrace an absolute, fundamental truth ... that
this world is NOT US versus THEM. This world is just US.
US versus THEM is absolutely a false construct of the propaganda... this world ... is just
US.
Finally, we will come to embrace reality ... that the solutions to complex issues are in
themselves complex. There are something close to 340 million people in the United
States; there are about 8 billion people on the planet!
SIMPLYALWAYS YES or SIMPLYALWAYS NO? REALLY? SERIOUSLY?
What are required to resolve complex issues ARE complex solutions. Sometimes YES
and sometimes NO with many agreed rules on when the answer is YES or when the
answer is NO.
Think of our complex rules for traffic. Speed limits, lane markings, traffic signs, parkin
restrictions, licensing requirements, safety standards - there are thousands and p g
thousands of legal statutes, rules and regulations!
WHY???
Because every day millions of vehicles take to our streets trying to get from place to
place, without any prior planning or coordination. Our traffic laws allow us to secure the
blessings of free and independent travel for each and every one of us, each and ever
day, PRECISELY because they are complex. y
Just imagine if our traffic regulations were to get politicized, submerged in oceans of
propaganda!
Suddenly half the cars are painted BLUE, half are RED!
The drivers would be furious at all times, of course, fists pumping in the air, shouting:
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"You goose-stepping racist Nazi prick, get out of my way!!!"
"You pinko commie socialist baby -eating bastard, you ain't going nowhere!!!"
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For generations, veterans have offered their lives s Equality, you ...
in the warm
and comforting quilt formed of, and by, Freedom, q tY and Fairness.
As I have said, I am a veteran of the United States Navy.
Consequently I swore;ap.,oi[th
to defend the Constitution of the United States, against offer our es, foreign and -
lives lust for words on
domestic. But I, and all of us veterans, didn t and don
an old piece of parchment.
We who serve9
reco nize that our Constitution, and dozens of like-minwho toilded ed to forge
around the world, were created by people, people like you and me, w
admittedly imperfect frameworks that they hoped and prayed might, maybe, secure the
blessings of Freedom, Equality, and Fairness for themselves and their posterity.
And it is solely for Freedom, Equality, and Fairness, in tandem and in concert, that we
offer our last full measure of devotion...
So if you still question your responsibilities, to yourself ilto the reereof across our vast
us, I invite you
to visit one of the dozens and dozens of national cemeteries
country.
Go! Go, damn you! Walk amongst those headstones there!
As far as the eye can see, in every direction, stand simple,
unassuming
mand Fairness.
onuments to
people, who fought for, and someall1and short,es even Freedom,
thin, with all manner of hair,
All manner of people mind youDFY
eyes, and color of skin. And in the face of that vast sacrbe bifice I dE to g'+OUa few hours
yourself, and to the rest of us, that you simply can
each month ... to promote and protect... Freedom, Equality, and Fairness!
You and I are well and truly victims.
I am no longer a defenseless victim. YOU are no longer defenseless either!
Not any more. Now you precisely know the enemy -..AND how to effectively fight it.
Now what say you to that man in the mirror?
"If not YOU, then WHO... if not NOW... then WHEN?"
About the author:
Michael James Ott is 63 years of age and retired. He is Fairness.
cating most of his remaining
M ness In his civilian career,
life to promoting and protecting Freedom, Equality, and Fa
Michael travelled, lived, and worked around the worlde f r telecfiber om supply companies.c technologies a. s n
engineer, engineering manager, and business manag
Bef
ore this he was an officer serving in the United States Navy onboard nuclear ballistic
missile submarines. Email him at michaelott4836@gmail.com.
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