DISAPPOINTING

You might be against trading five members of the Taliban for a captured American soldier. You might be against treating that captured American soldier as a hero because he might have deserted his post. But if you believe in the basic tenets of American justice, you can't be against making every effort to bring him back home. You can't, even if you choose to believe he is a traitor, when the young man has not been tried or even been given the opportunity to defend himself, or even if you don't like the president who arranged for his exchange. That line of thinking just doesn't add up to being true to how Americans are supposed to deal with people who are accused of anything. It also doesn't add up to how we treat our soldiers, especially those who become prisoners of our enemies. And you don't criticize his father for growing a beard or learning a language. You also don't condemn the soldier's hometown for planning a celebration over his release. This whole business of personal attacks, prevalent in the far right press, reeks of being despicable.

For those of you who follow this blog, you know that I don't rant about the issues of the day. My intent here is to describe and explain a perspective of governance and politics of which you might not be aware. My other purpose is to address some issues involved with schooling, especially those that pertain to civics education. I hope some of the postings I issue in this space would be useful to teachers who might use them to introduce or initiate discussions over pending concerns facing the nation. But this latest round of demagoguery is just too much. While I have no problem with people questioning the President's action with the exchange – I happen to believe he did the right thing – the whole suggestion that this young man should have been left behind is not worthy of even being considered. That young man is part of us; he is our federated partner. We cannot purposely abandon him and still say we believe in our constitution. If it turns out that he needs to be accused of a crime, then that is what will be done – I trust our military officials to do what is legally proper to do. But all of that comes in due time and soon enough. As long as Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was a captive of the enemy, it was not the time.