Mi mamá dejó a mi papá después de 30 años para "encontrarse a sí misma".
Se fue con un instructor de yoga de 28 años.
Mi papá no gritó. No suplicó. Ni pidió explicaciones. Solo dijo: "Que te vaya bien".
En los meses siguientes, aprendió a cocinarse, se compró la moto que ella no le dejaba tener, remodeló el quincho y tomó clases de salsa.
Por otro lado...
1999: I volunteered for the US Army.
2003-2012: Two deployments to Iraq. One to Afghanistan.
2023-present: Volunteering in Ukraine.
My family has been in America since the 1630s. Every generation served.
Virginia colonists. Revolutionary War soldiers. Confederate cavalry. Not always on the right side of history—but always serving.
December 8th, 1941: My maternal grandfather walked into a Marine recruiting office. Served in the Pacific. Years later he'd tell me: "If I knew then what I know now about this country, I would have never volunteered."
Korea: My paternal grandfather volunteered. Wounded and captured by the Chinese in the retreat from Chosin Reservoir. Silver Star recipient. Three years as a POW. He fought the VA for his disability until the day he died.
Vietnam: An uncle.
Gulf War: A cousin.
Iraq & Afghanistan: Me, my twin brother, and two more cousins.
My brother and I will be the first to tell you: the US is becoming an authoritarian shithole full of uneducated worshipers of a con man.
SO DON'T EVER LECTURE ME ON PATRIOTISM.
MY FAMILY HAS FOUGHT TO PRESERVE A DEMOCRACY THAT MAGA IS TRYING TO DESTROY.
“We need Greenland for national security”
“We need Greenland for natural resources”
“Greenland is in our backyard”
“The people of Greenland aren’t governed well”
Now replace “Greenland” with “Crimea” and you have Kremlin talking points about Ukraine.
This is a problem.