On Tuesday next, the greatest generation of the 21st Century will complete their voting for the next administration of our country. This generation, however, is composed of many more than the military men and women who answered the call to defeat fascism around the world. This generation is composed of people from 18 to a century or more, from every race, ethnicity, and gender that over 200 years of immigration, settlement, and perseverance in the cause of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all has produced. And we all want to answer with pride the question, “What did you do in 2020?” We all want to have been on Omaha Beach!
On Tuesday, those who have, for reasons of their own, waited until then to participate in the democracy we have built and are still building, will approach polling places in every precinct in the nation with a determination not wholly dissimilar from that of soldiers approaching the beaches of Normandy. Granted there are no bunkers of machine guns or fusillades of live ammunition waiting for them when they join those lines, but there is danger all the same. The corona virus is alive and well and waiting its chance to afflict the soldiers of democracy who have no other armor than a piece of cloth stretched from ear to ear and a hope of remaining six feet from anyone who might be carrying.
But the effort remains the same. We battle the same old foe. So when you pull up to your polling place, pull on your face mask, and arm yourself with picture ID and a working pen (black), keep your eyes on the prize.
SHIELD WALL!