U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
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90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
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State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 27, 2010 07:45 AM UTC
32 Comments
I think we should do all we can for our veterans and the military. The war in Afghanistan (and Iraq, where troop deaths continue to mount despite Obama’s “mission accomplished” faux pas) should be fully funded as long as it continues. If the war cannot be won in Afghanistan, we may have to find a way to exit due to limited resources, but while we are there we should provide soldiers all the resources they need.
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Refusing to “fully fund” the war effort does NOT put soldiers in jeopardy.
Rather, it forces planners to scale back so that troops and units can operate safely in a smaller scope of operations.
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and tell them to stop blocking House and Senate bills that help Veterans and the Military.
Actually, do you even know what HR 5933 does? S1237? Why do Republican’t law makers hate Vets so much that they would block or ignore either of these bills?
I’ll wait for whatever incoherent talking-point answer you post….
the answer is to call all vets “heroes” and to use that rote greeting “thank you for your service”.
We should be grateful for service and not only for those serving abroad but for those in support in the US, Europe and other places. Citizens should learn what service really entails.
I remember, and I’m sure all the other vets here remember, having discussions in boot camp and training right after boot camp about what a “hero” is. We did not think that all who served were “heroes” though recognizing in a small way what our sacrifice was. In all those discussions I was part of a “hero” was someone, probably dead, who had done smething truly exemplary. I know living “heroes”, men and women who EARNED Silver Stars, Navy Crosses and the MOH. Those are “heroes”. The rest of us gave several years of our lives and were completely immersed in our jobs, combat or support related, that served the foreign policy goals of the US. Few of us had ever read the Constitution and were more interested in our lives, our friend’s lives, and grateful for the hopes and concerns that our family and friends back home shared for us. We were not resentful of those who chose not to serve, we did want a headstart when we got back so we might catch up to them, like GI Bill.
So, I think we do a disservice to all by referring to all vets as “heroes”. After all, what honor do we then reserve for those who truly did something exemplary, those who placed their own lives at giant risk to save a friend or carry out a mission.
Learn what service really means and what you say to a vet will mean more to you and to her/him.
I served for 7 1/2 years, was in for the big one (Granada) and got out at the start of the little one (Desert Storm). Doesn’t make me a hero in the least. But it does make me someone who served my country honorably, if imperfectly (at least my discharge was honorable).
And how does this compare the the legion of chicken-hawks on the right who are so willing to send others’ children in to harms way when they never thought it a priority to have served themselves? And they refuse to support those same troops who were in harms way when they come home with a boggling variety of traumas, both physical and psychic.
I may not be a hero (am not one in fact), but I did serve and count that as something above those who didn’t but who are willing to slander the service of others who did.
The service of my ancestors and of my brother was important to me.
What I learned in the military was not only job skills. I lerned about people from all across the country, and even some foreign citizens who served with us. I met, the very first night, a fellow from Appalachia whose only experience with indoor plumbing was when he went to town, to school, etc. Then he came, with us, to a place with a dozen urinals, toilets, showers and gleaming tiles. He, and all of us, learned what it takes to make all that stuff gleam. Helpful in the real worl? Not much. What was helpful was the egalitarian nature of this work. Performed equally well by those with college education and not. Those from backgrounds where we had next to nothing and those with much more. We ran together, cleaned weapons together, handwashed laundry together, etc. We learned, and became proud of, an ability to make leather and brass shine. We learned how to keep ourselves alive, how to prevent fire, how to cause great, mutilating harm to others so we would be more likely to survive.
Mostly we learned to serve. Service to our community is important to many of us when we come home. Some, not all, of those who served and now run for office are genuine Some, not all of those who did NOT serve are genuine. But, finding an offense in someone’s military record from when they were 19 is no more important than finding one in the guy who did not serve. Those that serve and do something that in civilian life would be considered minor were much more likely to get caught because scrutiny is much higher than in civilian life.
To take the miltary record of someone like George McGovern and trash it is inexcusable and dishonorable. That man was heroic. Though Gore’s and Kerry’s service did not include anything like McGovern’s, their service was at the least honorable. Neither ever was acused of being AWOL. Gore could have easily avoided service, Kerry less likely though he could have served out of harm’s way.
they don’t hand out Silver stars to clerk/typists. Gore did exactly what I did, military journalism. Honorable and educational but hardly heroic.
My late father-in-law, a combat engineer who fought in Normandy, paid an enormous price. We can never repay the debt to our heros. Those like myself, who had the honor to serve alongside such men, are both humbled and enriched by their example.
both in the military and since.
…which is well-documented elsewhere on this fine site, let me just say this.
Despite two mangled feet that make me 20% disabled (and climbing), having buried two incredible close friends to losses in combat, and having the same clenched-gut feeling every morning I check the Defense.gov website to make sure none of my current friends have gotten killed or wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, I can make one statement with absolute clarity:
I will never trade my 16 years of service in the Army for anything. EVER.
And if my old Company Commander called up tomorrow and said, “SSG Dan, I need you to come to Bagram AFB and act as an Operations Specialist to help plan a rescue mission to snatch PFC Bergdahl from the Taliban” I’d be packed and gone within 15 minutes.
I wish I could express why this is ingrained into every vet’s DNA.
I can’t. I’ve tried.
The vast majority of civilians can’t understand. I don’t know if you can explain a military society. It may need to be lived to be comprehended.
So, what do we do? Make movies that are factually incorrect but do communicate the desperate edge of combat? (The Hurt Locker.) If we do, will a civilian even comprehend the most beautiful and telling scene in movie, without dismissing it?
I do know that a majority of vets are treated like their family’s crazy aunt or uncle after they come back from The Suck. Part of that is American Society’s fault, and some of that is the vet’s own intransigence to talk about the things they’ve seen, hear, smelled and felt.
I do know that there’s a disconnect – the one thing I’ve heard from combat vets is “America is at the Mall while the American Military is at War.” Is it because if you drive around America, there’s no way to tell we’re at War?
Last week, Gov Ritter ordered flags flown at half-staff for a Monte Vista Soldier killed in combat in Iraq. SPC Faith Hinkley was killed in a firefight with insurgencts, and will probably win a Silver or Bronze star for her heroism under fire.
But no one in this state knew why – a friend who works at 9News told me this: Amazing how many people call in every morning asking what the flags at half staff are all about… you tell them a soldier died, and they go “oh that’s it? Another one?”
I don’t know how to fix that – but I know we need to. Two words – Bonus Army.
I’m sorry Sarge, I’m not familiar with that term — are you referring to a modern day version of this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…
Thanks for indulging an old-ish sailor.
that must be why I like your posts so much.
After I was discharged, no web then, I seemed to spend my time pretty equally demonstrating to end the war in Viet Nam and worrying about people like me and others that I knew who were deployed at the time. I’d read the paper every AM and watch Walter Cronkite in the PM to get news and attend VVAW events to get recent updates. I can’t visit ANY war memorial without crying because I always end up wondering what kinds of lives these people might have had and thinking of the impact on their families.
When I was a kid and my dad was on active duty all of us dependent kids would be playing baseball, kickball or the like. A gray Navy vehicle would drive into the housing unit and we would stop and watch. Brake lights would come on and you could see the driver looking for addresses. We’d all wonder whose dad. If it stopped in front of one of our units we’d look at each other silently and one of us would leave the others standing there and go home with heart in throat.
Thank you for your service. Then and now.
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But I would never make military service a requirement for elective office, if that’s what yer gettin’ at.
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but what is happening from your side is the rampant trashing of others’ service. It has to stop!
My fellow vet has always been consistent in this – he’s always stuck up for politicians who have military service. That for all Parties involved in modern politics.
He’s been esp critical of the current occupant of the Congressional seat rep Fort Carson/AFA/Pete Field, simply because that’s all he’s been – an occupant.
How can a member of Congress and a member of the political party that supposedly “supports the troops” oppose the current and revised GI Bill, has never attended a deployment or redeployment, or even a single memorial service on ANY of the military installation’s in the area?
Direct your wrath at Green Zone Coffman or Do-Nothing Lamborn, but not at Barron X.
but his party generally. I respect Barron’s independent POV, but his party is full oh checken-hawks who neither served nor support those who have and who have made the ultimate sacrifice. No offense to Barron.
..he’s a member of the American Constitution Party. And while I find some of their views on the Federal Gov’t and taxation appropriate for the 17th Century, it’s pretty rare to find any frothing-mouth chickenhawks.
I thought you were an R. Please forgive the error.
such as Viet Nam and Iraq, that I would and have encouraged people to avoid seving. I would include the Spanish American War, just wasn’t around then, and WWI.
Really, there have been few of our conflicts that were truly justified. Certainly the Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War and WWII. None others yet.
When I was a child I became aware that there were still folks alive who were vets of the Civil War. I never got to speak with any of them. But, I have talked, in depth, to veterans of every war since. My paternal grandfather was a vet of both the Spanish American War and WWI. He fought Indians in TX and NM. When I was 8 I began listening to him. He died when I was 14 and I realized there was still a lot I hadn’t heard.
Though war may not be justified, American boys and men, and now women, are always there out of a sense of trust. Since they are largely young they have not really got the tools to examine whether what they are undertaking is just. They end up fighting for their lives and their friends. In that fight many become genuine heroes.
we are able to make those judgements with the aid of nearly perfect hindsight.
For those that must make a decision at the time the decision is required there’s so much less to go on — our political leaders, our religious leaders, our upbringing, our loyalty to our beliefs — sadly often flawed tools for making decisions about ultimate sacrifices.
I believe our nation owes a higher responsibility to our sons and daughters than vice versa.
though I do think that many conflicts and wars were so clearly wrong, like Iraq, Marines invading Nicaragua, even WWI that hindsight only confirms what should have been very clear. Spanish American War, the first time we fought halway around the world, not for anything but Pacific ports for trade.
But, really, if your last sentence was our guide these things would be much less likely.
I won’t, and haven’t, spoken about my time in the military much except with my partner. This may be one of the very few times I say much about it:
After graduating high school, I was lost and extremely depressed. I didn’t see many options, so followed my friends.
These years were the best of my life. I was given structure and discipline. I was also given specialized training I was able to use once I left the military.
My comment about it being the worst time was due to an attack that led to me being injured. My physical injuries were mainly superficial. The mental/emotional toll has been far greater. I rarely, if ever, leave my home.
As most vets have stated, I would not have done anything different if faced with the same choice. I am proud of my service. I was not and am not a hero. I am just one of many soldiers protecting this great Republic.
Like you I rarely talk about my service. Not because of anything horrible that happened. It just isn’t very relevant to my life today and most folks I talk with don’t get it. Mostly because, as Pam said in another thread, it was something we did then we came home. I think that is really the way it is supposed to be. But, it was a good thing for me.
I saw countries and cultures I otherwise never would have. I made many new friends, most are lost in some way. I saw horrific things though. I was asked to do horrific things. I paid a price. I am still paying that price.
This is not why I don’t talk about it though. I don’t talk about it because when I mention it there seems an automatic request for more information. For some vets, that’s fine. For me, it’s not easy for a couple reasons:
1. My memories are bittersweet ones. In order to talk about the good ones, I have to remember the bad ones.
2. I am still working through a lot of therapies. And while I know it’s usually best to talk them out with others who have gone through similar circumstances, it seems to compound my issues.
3. The nature of what I was doing in the military precludes me from talking in much detail about what I was doing or even the nature of the attack.
I didn’t mean to come off as if I regretted my years of service. I absolutely DO NOT. I am proud of the work I did and would have continued. As I said before, if given the same circumstances and the same choices, I would have made the exact same decision to enlist.
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in favor of anonymous posting.
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CONG Family Program Office – YELLOW RIBBON Reintegration Program – 12200 E Briarwood Ave Suite 160, Centennial CO 80112 phone 866-333-8844
While these services are lacking they are there for all VETS. My growing concern is the “vaporization” of “Caring for our VETS.”
I posted this same question on another Business side place – erm ok it was Linkedin.
The answers were dramatically “insensitive” and as many of you pointed out, without proper perspective (for lack of better words).
I see a shift. In the government sectors, military service is a A+, in fact you get points for being a VET.
In the private sector, its seen as a negative. You are frowned upon. Seen as too authoritarian, maybe having way too much discipline and certainly having too much structure and control.
We see those under 40, who never experienced or seen a draft, those who know of Iraq and Afghanistan, but in a different light. Today, instead of 18-20 year olds we are taking, husbands, wives, sons and daughters to the war, and I can certainly say we have found a new and improved model for “disapproval.”
So, my real question is to see, if “Politically,” the military(those active, reserve and VETS) will galvanizes again once the vacuum of an Iraqian disengagement hits our streets, without jobs, some without their families and some without compassion.
One example, more, insidious, are the recent changes to the Brady Gun Law (Background reporting and checks) that requires more reporting from the States on persons who should be excluded. SO, lets review whats happening, in California, for example, before this new legislative changes took effect, they had like 16 persons they reported to be exempted from insta-gun background check. Hmm… ok
Now they are the largest with hundreds of thousands, but how is this possible?
Seems like the VA is the largest contributor of names to be excluded. Look, I personally know how bad PTSD is, and how long the recovery takes. But we have to honor those (see heres whats going wrong) who fought the hard battles and are fighting them now. Instead of stigmatizing them.
What solider wants a label that may keep him from talking up arms to protect the USA?
thanks for the discussion, seriously.
…only the Executive Branch has a new, clear and distinct Vet hiring preference in place. Both the Legislature and the Judiciary do NOT.
As far as the private sector goes, many companies not affiliated with the DoD actively go after vets for recruiting. I personally have to applaud the efforts of DISH Network in this regard:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/abo…
Some others include the gaming industry and beer brewers (prob due to the military’s expertise in alcohol consumption and gambling)
Is it where it should be? No – OIF/OEF vets have an unemployment rate of about 12% – SHAMEFUL considering the job skills and other factors they can bring to a job.
Lastly, your Brady Law bullshit – the Burr Amendment to the Brady law is not only supported by the NRA, but all of the major vet service organizations.
http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?f…
The standard is when a Vet is determined to be “mentally incompetent,” not when he goes to the VHA for mental health care. If a vet goes for care at a Vet Center, his records can only be unsealed by a Federal Judge, so that’s not going to get out.
There’s other bigger issues in Colorado to focus on – perhaps our three candidates for Mayor would like to address the expansion of the Colorado Dept of Military and Veteran Affairs from it’s overworked 12-person staff that has to take care of over 475,000 vets?
Yes, on the Burr amendment, why was the VETS left out? maybe it because of the problem with the two party system, its running out of control.
See, look at Buck n’ Bennet show, when they say they want a balance budget amendment they fail to mention cutting vets, military, seniors and American’s unemployed, do they?
But to your post…..
I am referring to the Background check system and you are right “mental deficient – ptsd” HR 2640 NICS Improvement Amendment Act, a.k.a “Veterans Disarmament Act” Granted this isn’t an standard form ATF-4473 asking an section 12, but lets face it, the reporting is mandated.
So, fact is VA still supplied a few hundred thousand names I think the number actually was massive, can double check exact amounts from California.
Colorado has always embraced the Federal intrusion into the 2nd amendment, no need to hold out that federal carrot to get them to institute restrictions.
https://instacheck.state.co.us/
But those are a few exceptions, I was referring to the majority.
I know in Private and Government for some, the VET has a clear distinction, as I fell they should have, but times are changing.
And those figures are low, esp. if you are a minority VET living in the inner city of any urban city in America, then try 25-45% Unemployment.
Most of all, I agree what you are asking of the Governor, mayor any candidate. Thanks.
http://www.lcav.org/content/me…
At the time report, showing the various state laws, see the problem is the mandatory reporting. Granted there is a dispute mechanism, wonder how that is working.