This Just In—On Monday, we pause, much too briefly, to remember those who died in service to the nation … those who put their lives on the line and didn’t come home, as well as those who came home grievously damaged and injured and died from those injuries — some of them decades later after immense suffering.
I won’t be the first or last to point out – I’m not talking about honoring veterans. That’s important, but not the same. That day comes in November. Monday is a day of mourning. A day of reflection and acknowledgement of a lost future and passing time.
We who survive and benefit from these lost people owe it to them to observe their sacrifice and our debt includes holding our government to account for the risk we subject our military people to today, tomorrow and next week.
I was reminded yesterday of John Kerry’s testimony after his return from Vietnam, during the time that we were learning the degree to which the Nixon administration was lying to the public about how that unwinnable war was going.
”How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Kerry famously said to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. He was a decorated soldier. He appeared in uniform and spoke on behalf of Veterans Against the War.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Jay patrols the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Thursday, May 15, 2025, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (Photo via AP Photo/Mike Pesoli.)
That question is sadly exactly on point today. The current administration has launched a reckless and unnecessary military adventure that has already killed more than a dozen military personnel. The world’s access to commerce through the Strait of Hormuz is needlessly compromised and there clearly is little or no plan for America’s exit.
Congressional hearings are a powerful way that we hold the administration accountable for such actions, putting their constantly shifting explanations on the record. They are going on, though they don’t command the media attention that they should as there’s a firehose of distortion and distraction coming from down the street.
And so we reach this inflection point … it is our patriotic duty to see past the distractions and keep our hands on the wheel, our eyes on the horizon before us and ensure that we’re also holding Congress to account for itself.
Like the Judiciary, Congress is supposed to be a check on the Executive branch of government. This function is compromised by the grip that the president currently has on what used to be the Republican Party. When the history on this era is written, it will tell the story of the end of a political party … like the Whigs or the Bull Moose parties.
The Republican Party simply cannot make an argument for its legitimate existence any longer. They did away with passing a policy platform. They have long ago forfeited any claim to be fiscally or culturally conservative and their connection to the Constitution has been severed.
The vacuum created by this has been described in the hypothetical for years, but now we’re living in the black hole actually created by the absence of the GOP. This is just an outright corrupt criminal enterprise, populated by cowards who think that military might is strength and physical domination is leadership. It’s our duty to bring that crime spree to an end as soon as possible. The world is watching.
I hope to be traveling to Normandy in the coming year to fulfill a promise to Emmanuel, my father-in-law, who thankfully survived D-Day but left many of his friends there. I hope to be worthy of paying my respects there on his behalf and that of my children and grandchildren, whose existence is his legacy.
Wishing you a peaceful, thoughtful Memorial Day. Raise a flag. Plant some flowers. Read a poem.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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