letter: How could any patriot vote for man who disparages veterans?

To Ozaukee Press:
    When I stepped off the bus to begin basic training at Fort Polk in Louisiana in 1968, I clearly remember wishing that I were almost anywhere else. There was nothing in it for me, certainly no money or status in being just another private in the U.S. Army.  
    I recall having experienced a whole lot of emotions in the weeks and months and years that followed, and not all of them were pleasant, but like so many of my fellow soldiers I never felt ashamed of wearing the uniform. I never felt like a “sucker” or a “loser” because I had served.
    Almost 50 years had passed, until 2016, before I heard any American servicemen and women addressed in such a manner.             I was shocked and sickened to hear the then Republican candidate for the presidency openly and repeatedly disparage the sacrifices of heroic patriots like John McCain and the Gold Star parents of a young American who gave his life in defense of our country.
    Even more disturbing to me than Donald Trump’s words at the time was the blind acceptance and genuine indifference of his supporters.
    Now, we are once again gobsmacked with the deep-seated contempt of our president—our commander in chief—toward the men and women of the U.S. military. This time his disparagement verges on the unspeakable.
    We know that he dismissed honoring the American Marines buried in a World War I battlefield in France for fear of mussing his hair during the ceremony.
    While standing over the grave of Gen. John Kelly’s son, and in the general’s presence, Trump mused, “I don’t get it? What’s in it for them?”
    Now we know Trump has referred to America’s war dead as “suckers and losers.” He has even called George H. W. Bush a loser for having been shot down.  Worse, he has saved his greatest contempt for those who have sacrificed the most. He has suggested that the wounded and disfigured should be hidden from public view—“No one wants to see that.”
    Should there be any doubt about the reports of these offenses being true, consider this simple choice: Are we to believe that all of the major news sources in our country, including Fox News, are engaging in a widespread and fantastical conspiracy to shame the president, or that Donald Trump is lying? It really is that simple.
    For some time, we have known that there is not an aspect of Trump’s character or behavior that is not reprehensible. Now that this story has broken, reprehensible is too kind a word. The appropriate word is  contemptible.
    I literally cannot understand how any active or retired U.S. serviceman or woman, any patriot, for that matter, can cast a vote for this man.
Donald Harvey
Port Washington