For the first time since Democrat-imposed lockdowns in California, the Air-Force-centric, military veterans' fraternity, "Wings over Wendy's" held a gathering to commemorate Memorial Day. Director, Bob Donovan, describes the group's purpose (transcript below).
Longtime Democrats alienated by leftward-drawn politicians; why do they prefer Memorial Day with Republican veterans?
A retired, Jewish physician declares: 'We didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left us!' He and his wife preferred not to disclose their names publicly.
The good doctor elaborates:
"I was a civil rights worker as a junior medical student I did voter registration and gave lectures on health in Black Baptist churches in Mississippi. I remember one night I was arrested on a trumped-up, reckless driving charge. And they put me in jail and they put me in the Black section of a segregated jail. I spent the night in the Black section and i must say the Black prisoners were were shocked in awe that a White man was in there with them and in the jail. . . .
I volunteered to be in the United States Public Health Service so I could legally discharge my duties as a commissioned officer. In the public health service, I worked as a doctor in migrant clinics in the in the 70s. I worked in a Black neighborhood during the Johnson Great Society Era, but I converted to Conservativism in the year 2000 to 2004 because of my love of Israel - and my realization that the Palestinians did not intend to ever have a peace and they basically wanted to destroy Israel. I realized that the Republican Party and especially the Conservatives had a clear vision that we had to fight against this worldwide Islamic Nazism. And little by little, I became a Constitutional Conservative, even though in my younger days I was quite liberal!"
Transcription of interview with Bob Donovan: DemoCast asked:
"What was the the gist here of Memorial Day? The cemeteries are closed or they aren't holding ceremonies (due to political policies) unfortunately, anymore. The cemeteries are open just for people to come and visit. But veterans' gathering, where do they go?"
Bob Donovan 00:22
Well, that's right, where DO they go? We've always met on every Monday. And even since the pandemic has hit, we've still gotten together on Monday, but strictly through Zoom. This is the first time we've been able to get together live. And as much as anything, it's the camaraderie and fellowship that these fellows find, which drives them to come. It's not to swap war stories, it's to see each other! How much they thoroughly enjoy each other's company. And I think you can see that when you see them, they're thoroughly happy to see each other. And the wives or the wives or their children, whatever. So that is the big thing. And they understand more than anybody the respect that you have for the fallen. Many of them have witnessed their own friends fallen. And so you realize the power of that.
Bob Donovan 01:03
And like you say, you can't go to the cemetery. So where do you go? Here, it gives everybody a chance to, to think about that and think about it in a good soulful way. And you heard Barney Leone's wonderful invocation, which is very appropriate for almost any day, but particularly for Memorial Day. So yeah, it's it's a wonderful thing. I thoroughly enjoyed being here. We had a few technical glitches, but that's to be understood - we had two hours prep, and working off of three different computers, so it wasn't easy.
Bob Donovan 01:30
But all in all, it went pretty well. I think most of the folks are pretty happy. And these are a really great group of fellas, they really are. And ladies and ladies, too, excuse me, yeah. We have a few ladies - matter of fact, we have one, World War Two, Ethel Margolin is our only female WWII veteran, and a very proud, proud veteran she is.
DemoCast 01:48
What's the common thread of the the gathers here of - this isn't just this one occasion, but but the Association?
Bob Donovan 01:57
Well, the most common thread, of course, is that most of us have military service. But not all, some just support the organization. Because it's a, it's an organization that really reflects what America is truly about. Its heart and soul, about the freedom about the right of private ownership of property, the right to be free, and in your speech, in your everyday life not to be burdened by large government intrusions, taxes and things. And that's what these people are all about. They are the freedom loving Americans who are willing, if need be, to die for that freedom, and many of the friends did. That is a really common thing.
Bob Donovan 02:32
And just a wonderful group of fellows. I mean, and ladies there, they're a lot of fun to be with all the time. And so we're you can't find many other places that on a Monday, you'd get people - probably the average age is in the low 80s. People like myself taking it down 20 years for the World War Two guys, that would show up anywhere at eight, or 8:30 in the morning on a Monday. They just don't do it. They stay home, they wake up at 10 or 11. And watch TV or old black and white reruns or something, but they don't come out and participate.
Bob Donovan 03:02
But it means so much to these folks that if they don't make it, they apologize. Geez, I'm so sorry. I can't be there today. Usually, it's the same thing. It's usually doctor's appointments. But that's all right. For me, it's a joyous occasion, I thoroughly look forward to seeing these faces. And when you look at the board over there, you saw all the ones that have passed, and it touches your heart, when you look at them go wow, there's another one that didn't make it, you know, for the long haul. But no, it's a wonderful thing. And as you can see people that aren't really affiliated with the military still have that same feeling. And they come back. We've had young kids that come back, say, You know what, I enjoy talking to some of these old guys so much, and I like what you do. You don't have to beg these people to sing "God Bless America." As soon as it starts, they're all singing and happy to do it! And that is something you don't get often. So they stand up, they're proud to salute the American flag and do the Pledge of Allegiance. They're patriotic - they grew up at a different time. And so it's, I can definitely say it's fun. It is emotionally stirring, and makes me feel good. But it's fun. Most of all, it's just fun. And the right to pursue happiness. Happiness is fun. It was Justice Louis Brandeis said the key to happiness is liberty. And the key to liberty is courage. That's what all these people have. They all had courage.
DemoCast 04:21
it seemed from watching the Memorial Day concert hosted by Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna, that the producers - and of course it was PBS - that they're advocating a pacifist vision of America. That this notion of diversity and equity is more important than, and of course there are physical material threats against ... in global geopolitics ... that Americans have to be willing to, to defend to fight for. Why is this group now so important to message to convey to the public - in view of the way that the administration is trying to, to downplay a military defense?
Bob Donovan 05:11
Well, it's sad, but it's absolutely true. It's a good observation. I think that we have people that would rather apologize to our enemies than be kind to our allies. And we've seen that time and time again. And it encompasses every part of society, whether you talk the media, the military, and they're all told that you must obey these rules, and they, whether it's told just in the quiet of one person to another - this is how you will behave, you will not encourage or pay great homage to those who have been in war because they say you're a warmonger. But if you don't have a strong defense, you will be at war. When you're weak, guess what, you get attacked! And we've seen that time and time -whether it's a country or an individual, you have to stay strong. And they don't want you to stay strong, they want to be weak, because they think that that's a good way to go. It's not we know it, historically, we know it. But for some reason, this seems to be the the basic idea that and premise that the people are going on, they're thinking about... We're supposed to promote the general welfare, and provide for the common defense. The two keywords are general and common. But that's not the case anymore. It's about specific groups that are very loud and vocal. They seem to be in charge of everything, and they're dictating how the rest of us should live and think. And freedom is not about someone telling you how to think - not at all. That's the last bit of freedom that you should ever, ever give up is your freedom of thought.
Bob Donovan 06:37
I think it was Madison was doggedly about freedom of thought. Freedom of thought to Madison was freedom of religion. But that was considered freedom of thought. But to have any thoughts, right or wrong compared to whether you should not be censored. And censorship is incredible. Now, there is what's known as a supremacy culture, which is very sad. Most of your dictators always suffered from that. And they would isolate you whether they put you in a gulag, or the Pol Pot took and put you in a prison. And now of course, you don't have to do that. You do it electronically. They make you null and void and make your voice quiet, electronically, much easy to do.
Bob Donovan 07:16
And you see it time and time again, whether it's high ranking military person, political person, they don't like your ideas what you say. They just wash you away electronically, and you've, you might as well be in the gulag, because no one's gonna hear you. And you they can ruin you financially, emotionally. And it's very sad. You have to stand up once in a while and decide, wait a minute, there's something worth fighting for. And if there's anything worth fighting for your country, because without your country, your life is no good. You can talk to anyone that's lived under the Soviet Union, lived in China, any country that has been pounced upon by dictators and the left. They can all tell you don't let it happen. But you see, it's slowly happening. Eroding. It's very sad. It's frightening. I'm about to have my first grandchild. And it frightens me.
DemoCast 08:02
Do you mean in the future - under the political trends?
Bob Donovan 08:07
Yeah, if the political trend will continue, most of our freedoms would be gone. And they take them from - and people don't notice it. Really. They quietly just give all this that doesn't mean that much to me. Yeah, but it means something. I mean, one of the worst ones is they squash, they squash, the squash school choice. How can you squash school choice, I mean, the right to to get a good education? And many people say no, they don't want you to do that. They want you to be at the school they want you to go to so that they can teach you what they want, which is not teaching anything. It's indoctrination. Pure indoctrination on the left. Well, that's not going to help us much and build a strong country.
Bob Donovan 08:44
The founding fathers knew exactly what they were looking at. And people would say a bunch of I hear it all a bunch of old white men, but those old white men knew what it was about because they lived and saw the tyranny in Europe and how bad it was and wanted something different. I think they wrote a pretty good document. We've, we've amended it a couple times. But still, the document is there and it's to be respected and loved. And if you don't love your country and your family, you don't have much. So anyway, that kind of sums it up for me.
