Fellow Vets, as I sat here tonight with fingers rambling around the internet in search of interesting items for your Tribune I accidentally typed in the wrong search word and was directed to a website where a copy of the U.S. Constitution was located. Glaring at me in large letters at the top of the page were the words "WE THE PEOPLE." Three simple words but ones I believe are the most important segment of our Constitution. Unfortunately, that importance is being emphatically ignored by the politicians wishing to lead this country next year.

Listening to the obnoxious bantering during recent live televised political debates I never heard the words WE THE PEOPLE, or any semblance thereof. The most commonly used word by each candidate was “I” as they expounded upon supposed personal political successes that topped their opponent’s supposed accomplishments. If one candidate says he cut taxes, the next one says “I” did it better. If a candidate says he will be the best leader of our country, all will state that “I” would be a better President. The “I’s” expound on change. “The American people want change.” Hell, we know that! Do something about it instead of telling us what we want!

Then, the usual argument breaks out among the “I’s” as they try to interject their exaggerated bragging of things done in the past that we could care less about. WE THE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT TODAY! This comical show continues until the Moderator takes semi-control by asking another stupidly biased question. I state biased because Moderators sent from various news organizations are seemingly tasked to repeat questions asked 50 times previously that are obviously partial or impartial to certain candidates sitting at the dais. It is blatantly biased news reporting at its’ best.

My biggest concern during these debate debacles was the failure to remember the folks out here begging for a leader to straighten out this God awful mess our country has become over the past 20 or 30 years. We fight wars nobody really wants to be in, unemployment is a nightmare, inflation is absolutely crazy, we are held slave by oil rich countries where people can’t even write their own name, the morals of most of our citizens cannot match one of the ten commandments, personal gain outweighs moral responsibility, taxes are used to enslave us, and our children would rather play a video game designed to slaughter people than obtain a decent education.

WWII displayed the true meaning of WE THE PEOPLE. Our citizens came together to defeat fanatical tyrants and preserve freedom for the people of our world. Once the war ended, these same heroes built one of the greatest empires in history. One where jobs were plentiful, taxes were acceptable, you could walk in your neighborhood in the evening without fear of a drive-by shooting, the word crack was only used in hopscotch as you tried to avoid stepping on sidewalk crevices, and when you purchased something in the local store it was made by WE THE PEOPLE not the Peoples Republic of China.

I spent a great deal of my life serving in uniform overseas and when I returned for good in the late 80’s I was completely shocked by what had occurred in our country. Drugs were rampant, crime levels were unbelievable, good paying jobs were hard to find, and tax had been placed upon everything that existed by our good ol' boys of federal, state, county, and city governments. In fact, today, you cannot pick up a newspaper or turn on a radio or television without someone preaching a proposal to tax something to “help” us. If you have access to the internet, go do a search on taxes implemented since conception in this country. Unbelievable results will occur. Hell, if you search on the word "tax" you will find 502,000,000 webpages relating to it. It this why WE THE PEOPLE wrote the Constitution???

WE THE PEOPLE need to take back our country. WE THE PEOPLE need to get rid of these clowns running our governments at all levels that continually raise our taxes and fail with political promises to fix problems in our country. Fellow Vets, the backbone of WE THE PEOPLE are you and I. The millions of veterans who fought for freedom. Veterans who fought, not for rampant drugs and crime and enormous taxes and products made in every damn country but ours. We are the people who offered our life for America. It is time for us to stand up and say ENOUGH! Before WE THE PEOPLE are destroyed. Destroyed by political greed, lack of leadership, corruption at all government levels, and continual violation of the blessed commandants.

We have to do this my friends because WE ARE THE PEOPLE. WE VETERANS must stand and join together once again or America is surely doomed. We must turn the “I’s” to “WE’s”. Serving together again we can return America to Americans before it is sold to the Chinese.