Protecting America in the Modern Age

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

What is going on, everybody? Welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. My name is Chris Albert, and this is where we deliver tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas to help The US military veteran community and anybody else willing to listen to live their absolute best lives. If you were like me growing up and you had a grandfather who served in World War two, you sat there, you listened to the stories, you heard about him probably growing up in the Great Depression, you know, dealing with all the hardships they had to deal with at that point. And then, you know, coming of age and going off to serve and to fight against the Germans or the Japanese in one of the theaters, and the sense of patriotism and pride that came from that.

Right? Being able to survive an event like the Great Depression and then being able to survive another event like World War two. And I just remember the great appreciation that people extended to my grandfather. Right? The for him being a veteran, for him having served.

And I'm sure that if you had a relative or or a grandparent who served in World War two, you probably experienced the same thing. And, you know, part of me you know, part of me understood that those were horrible events. Right? The Great Depression, so many people had suffered in poverty. And World War two, you know, one of the most catastrophic events in human history, probably the most catastrophic event in human history.

And here I am, you know, wishing that I could have been part of it, wishing that I was born in another time in another place. Right? And that's not rational. It's not anything that that you consider normal. But a certain type of person joins the Marine Corps and a certain type of person joins the army and a certain type of person wants to serve.

And even though it's not rational, there's a lot of us who think that way and a lot of us who wished we could have participated in in some greater scale in serving our country. I'm gonna cut to the chase here because I think that despite the fact that so many of us wish we could have been born in another time, in another place, I think what we're going through right now is so significant to the history of the country that we all need to open up our eyes and realize that if we wanna serve, if we want to make this country better, if we wanna have an impact, the time is now. You know, we're going through an unprecedented global pandemic, and, in our country at least, an unprecedented intervention of the federal government into the personal lives of individual humans. And that is a dangerous thing. That is a dangerous thing.

It it's happened before. Right? So here's the deal. Right? There there's been events throughout our country's history that have been absolutely horrible that the government has participated in.

Right? The the systematic oppression of black people that occurred up until the Civil Rights Act, the Jim Crow South, absolutely horrible, absolutely disgusting. And what it looks like in my mind, at least as a human being, knowing that those events were were disgusting and and were horrible, it looks like we're creating an apartheid in a different form. Right? This idea that you are either vaccinated and you are following everything that the government says, or you are an basically, an enemy of the government and of the people.

Alright? And and that's the way it's being framed. I don't think that that's the reality. Right? I think that that the reality is there's a lot of people out there who are genuinely hesitant about the vaccine.

They do not wanna break the law. They wanna live their lives quietly. They want to to just go to work, raise their children the way they seem fit. They just want the right to say what they're gonna put into their bodies and what they're not gonna put into their bodies. They don't wanna spread the disease.

They don't want to to give people COVID. They just want the right to determine what they're going to do and what they're not going to do. And there's this myth out there. Right? There's this myth out there that everybody who believes this is, you know, a MAGA hat wearing Republican.

Right? But the fact is that, you know, a vast majority of the people who are unvaccinated are people of color, are people who have historical mistrust, legitimate historical mistrust of vaccines, and who just don't trust it. And rather than having a president get up there and say, you know, we're losing our patience with you. We're gonna mandate this. They should be approaching everything with with, you know, a bit of care and compassion and and, you know, trying to get people to understand why they should do it.

Right? Why it's in their interest in in getting people to want to do it. But instead, they're they're forcing it. And in a case like that, those of us who believe in America, you know, that's what's making us that's what's driving us crazy. And and here's why it's so important.

The constitution, the bill of rights, everything that this country is founded on. Right? Great. We've got nuclear weapons. Great.

We've got an amazing air force, an amazing navy, a powerful army, an outstanding marine corps. Right? We've got buildings in Washington DC, marble. Right? We've got, you know, amazing cities.

We've got a territory that is separated from Europe by an ocean and separated from Asia by an ocean, and and we've got borders to the South. Well, we used to have borders to the South and borders to the North. But what really brings this country together, what what really unifies The United States Of America is the ideas upon which it's been founded. The constitution, the bill of rights, the declaration of independence. Each of these documents outlines ideas that are the fabric of who we want to be, who we say we are.

And the crazy thing about ideas, these ideas, is that, you know, they're not real. Right? And and I'm not saying that to to be provocative or to be offensive. The reality is all of these ideas, they live in our collective imagination. They live in our minds.

And it doesn't take much to erase that. It takes a generation. Right? A generation that's educated differently. A generation that's taught not to value these ideas.

A generation that's taught, you know, the the constitution and the bill of rights or things of the past. And when that happens, those ideas, those values, those things that hold us together, they go away, and they go away very easily. This is what I don't think most people understand. This isn't just about getting a vaccine. It's not even about COVID nineteen for those of us who have concerns about this.

This is about the very thing that allows us to call ourselves The United States Of America. This is about the very thing that so many young men and young women of all races, creeds, colors, religions have died for. And if we give it up now, we're not gonna be able to get it back. That that just doesn't happen. You erase these ideas for a generation, and they're gone.

The the great hope of the world. Right? And you could say a lot of things about America, a lot of things that have happened in our history. It hasn't all been perfect. But there is no other country in the world like this.

There is no other country in the world that offers the opportunity that this country does to anybody of any social class. Right? There isn't. Sure. There's rich people who are born in a privilege.

Sure. There's poor people who have to fight a little bit harder, maybe a lot harder. I grew up poor. I I had a single mom, didn't have a dad. I remember what it was like looking at rich people, driving in their cars, you know, seeing people with the typical nuclear family walking around and and, you know, that sense of of them being superior to me, that was all in my head.

And that was subsided by the idea that I could grow up and I could work and I could become anything that I wanted to become as long as I was learning the proper ideas. As long as I saw myself as somebody who could go out there and seize upon opportunities. And and as long as I didn't treat myself like I was some oppressed human being, and I didn't let the circumstances of my birth or the circumstances of my upbringing set me on a course that wasn't gonna help me, then I could actually go out there and I could do something. I could become something. I could contribute to this amazing society that we've built.

And that opportunity is there for everybody. And here's the thing, you know, understanding this isn't in the interest of one political party. Right? Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you should be concerned with what's going on because the pendulum of power swings both ways. Right?

The people you agree with might not always be in office. They might not always be in power. But the tools that they're fashioning right now to step into our individual lives, those could be used for other things. And maybe other things that that you're not so passionate about. Maybe other things that would actually invade your life and make it a lot more difficult for you to be you and to enjoy the freedoms of this country.

So I think we all need to wake up here. This isn't about the disease. It's not about COVID. It's not about the vaccine. It's not about political division.

It's about who are we going to be? Are we going to be a country where individual rights and the ability to become anything you want and individual freedom is important, or are we gonna be a country where it's not? And if we're a country where it's not, then when the political pendulum swings the other way, what are you gonna do? What's gonna happen? Right?

Think about it. That's just my take on this whole situation, and and I'm sure you have yours as well. So with that, I'm gonna step off, and I hope you guys are doing well. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.