It is well known that we Americans are a courageous and unique breed. By way of illustrating this point, we fought and died for our independence from the tyrant King George. We fought and died during our Civil War to begin to free elements of our society from slavery. We fought and died during WWI and WWII to keep the world safe for democratic experiments in ours and in nations around the world. We battled Communism in Korea and Vietnam and, yes, even in our own country. The list of engagements for democratic purposes goes on through Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.

And now, now, believe it or not, a strong minority of us seem willing to cash in our hard-won Constitution, our democracy, our personal freedoms for imperialism under a wannabe dictator. Many millions of us support him in spite of his reference to our war heroes of past conflicts as “losers” if they were captured, killed or wounded while they fought for us. Oh, yes, we’re unique, or maybe you can come up with a more appropriate word to describe us Americans at this moment in time. Please remember the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. It is a moment in time for each of us to determine what it means to be an American.

Charlie Stepanek

Concord