During the White House press briefing last Thursday, Gen. John Kelly, a retired four-star U.S. Marine Corps general and White House chief of staff, painted a picture that, as a combat veteran, moved me to tears. His gripping description of what the military calls the “dignified transfer” of service members killed in combat hit me deeply to my soul.
While parts of Kelly’s statement certainly weren’t perfect, it did strike me as a genuine attempt to bridge the gap between the military and civilians in our country and tell some truth. The truth about the state of our politics and the soul of our fractured country.
{mosads} Kelly’s statement was not just an indictment of Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), but I think it was also President Trump and our politics and society today.
Much has been discussed about Kelly’s reference to Wilson alluding to her as an “empty Barrel,” following her poor judgment in publicly describing the president’s condolence call with the widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson. However, Kelly’s critique actually went beyond Rep. Wilson – indicting many of our political leaders today: “…in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise.”
But that is not where Kelly stopped, he also provided would could be seen as a scathing — albeit indirect — critique of another politician, his boss: President Donald Trump.
Most have analyzed Kelly’s comments within the context of Trump comparing his approach to condolences for fallen soldiers with past presidents, including Barack Obama. However, if you shift the perspective and read Kelly’s remarks with the president himself in mind — Trump’s life walk and how he comported himself as candidate and, thus far, as president — Kelly’s withering critiques of President Trump smack you in the face:
- “…they volunteer to protect our country when there’s nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that selfless service to the nation is not only appropriate, but required.”
- “Then he [Donald Trump] said, how do you make these calls? …if you’ve never worn the uniform, if you’ve never been in combat, you can’t even imagine how to make that call.”
- “So he [Donald Trump] called four people the other day and expressed his condolences in the best way that he could.”
- “That’s what the President tried to say to four families the other day.”
- “You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. Life — the dignity of life — is sacred. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer. I just thought — the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred.
But that’s not where Kelly ended. After indicting Rep. Wilson and, indirectly, President Trump, both reflections of our polarized, dysfunctional, self-interested, and self-indulgent politics today he went on to tell some more truth – now about our country.
“I appeal to America, that let’s not let this maybe last thing that’s held sacred in our society — a young man, young woman going out and giving his or her life for our country — let’s try to somehow keep that sacred.”
Many have and will continue to focus the conversation on what they view as the political cover that Kelly provided to the president. Kelly did not spend enough time talking about the four soldiers killed or expressing his regret that Sgt. Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, who did not receive the deep and heartfelt nature of the condolence – in the way that Kelly understood it These are valid critiques for conversation and debate, but they miss a larger set of truths.
The larger truth is that we talk at each other and through a camera or over twitter – rather than with each other and in person.
The truth is that we not only no longer listen to each other, we don’t understand each other.
And the truth is that we have become an America that focuses our politics on a set of narrow identities rather than shared ideas and ideals.
As a veteran and a citizen, those are my truths about our country today. Truths that we must do something about it.
There are those trying. The Listen First Project recognizes these truths and are taking heroic steps to get people to talk to each other – no matter their background or perspective. But this will only take us so far. A much larger disruption must occur in our country and in our politics — a disruption from the middle: the political middle, the middle class, and the middle of our country.
And to further ground my mindset on the nature of the disruption we need, I followed Kelly’s lead and decided to walk among heroes.
As I write this, I am looking out over Arlington National Cemetery. I can’t help but hope that all of the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country were doing exactly what they wanted to do, were with exactly who they wanted to be with — their brothers and sisters in arms, and did it for a shared set of ideas and ideals about what America stands for in the world.
And as I look beyond the cemetery — towards the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, and the White House — and think about our country today; I appeal to our leaders and my fellow Americans to have that same hope.
Because there must be a larger purpose to all of this.
I think there is.
Alex Gallo served as a professional staff member with the House Armed Services Committee. He is a West Point graduate, a combat veteran, and a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His work has been published by The Washington Post, National Review, The Huffington Post, The Hill, and Foreign Affairs. You can follow him on Twitter @AlexGalloUSA.