“Vote...and Vote Not”
By Jim Culp
August 24, 2023
A friend of mine (I’ll call
him Bob) called me last night (one of us lost the other’s number). Having been
soldiers of the same unit got us shuckin’ and jivin’ for the first time in at
least a decade. After some soldier jokes and worthless B.S… we talked about the
times while out on our tanks. This guy and I went all the way back to our time
in Delta Company, First Tank. Then the phone was quiet, and I asked him if he
was calling for something else. He said he was calling me because I was on the
call list for the Republican Party that was calling people on their list for
the support of Donald Trump.
“Well dude, I haven’t been
listed on that since 2002, and I don’t know who put my name back on it…but you
can scratch me off of it.”
“What? Are you kidding me
brother?”
“Listen man…it’s been a long
time. I have different views and beliefs that I didn’t back when we were riding
the steel killers. Maybe we better talk on that side for a while before we
decide who we are voting for.”
There was brief and
uncomfortable pause, and then he spoke up.
“Jim, you know me bro…I
wouldn’t just haphazardly support anyone, but I feel this one in my bones.
Trump has saved us time and time again, and right now he is our only hope.”
“Let me stop you there, Bob.
You couldn’t sell me that if you had a 5-ton truck full of pretty whores and
hundred-dollar bills. You can say that of anyone in government that you have
seen pull off some major political feats, but that doesn’t make the person
infallible.”
“Ok, Jim. I just wanted to
talk.”
“Really Bob? I think you were
ready to shovel me fifty pounds of shit and tell me it was chocolate pudding. I
was in Iraq in 2003, and way into 2004. I did two personal things during that
tour, and here they are. A) I came to bear with my faith. I took faith and
religion and tossed them out of my life.
B) I stopped taking any words
from any politician at face value. There is simply way too much crap to wade
through after the words are spoken. I don’t care if it’s Bill Clinton or Barack
Obama, Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny…I have made up my mind that I would let them impress
me, not the other way around.
“Yeah,” said Bob, “that’s a
big slice of pie to eat.”
“You mean as big as Christianity?
When I was in Iraq, I read a ton of books at night when everything was half-ass
quiet. At least twelve of them were about world religions. Man, were my eyes
ever opened.”
His phone hung up. I know that
he had because he’s a guy that never upgrades anything. So… he probably still
has a phone that is as big as a lawn tractor.
He started and lost that
argument, and there is a reason why. Don’t try your tricks with an intelligent
human. They don’t line up like suckers.
Will I vote in the next
Presidential Election? We’ll see. Someone has to convince me of his or her
metal and serving the USA like a POTUS should, not try and make a side deal to
fill up the coffers.
I don’t know where things are
going, but I will make my own path. I guarantee that my actions will not be because
of a god that tells me it’s right, or a politician that needs to be in an old
folk’s home.
Like my main homie Bob Dylan said
so many years ago… “the times they are a changin’.”
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me at jimculp.blogspot.com
