Troops and the People

Given recent events, I believe it is important to address the history of military and federal units being used among the People.

As early as 1791, during the Whiskey Rebellion, the federal government has mustered their forces to confront issues of “national security”.

The Bonus Army, which was comprised of WWI veterans who marched on Washington, DC, in 1932, to demand bonus pay that they had not received, is an excellent and lesser known example of this. It was met with violence from the US Army, and as fate would have it, also involved to-be-generals Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur. If you have not read into this event, I urge that you do so.

In 1957 the 101st Airborne was activated to ensure that the Little Rock Nine could attend school with white students. This action was defended as a necessary one to have helped end segregation.

In 2005 the 82nd Airborne was activated to assist with rescue operations after Hurricane Katrina. There are mixed reports about the effectiveness of it, and plenty of reported abuses on citizens Constitutional rights.

Twenty years later, the Marines and National Guard are activated to assist federal agencies with illegal immigration. Some praise it, others say it is unconstitutional. And while I will almost always be opposed to seeing federal troops on American streets, I do have one thing to say to those who claim it is wrong. Did you support high school students being forced with bayonets and held at gunpoint to end segregation? And if so, would you not agree that a flood of illegal immigrants, who have drained and abused our resources, is not an equal crisis, if not larger?

Again, we should all be cautious of those who seek to gain, normalize, and abuse power; but we should not allow one side to control the narrative. This is why I emphasize that we all become experts in OUR history. If you do not know it, you cannot defend it, or preserve it. #FindYourHill