How disconcerting. How angering. How disappointing.
During his first State of the Union address Tuesday, as President Joe Biden spoke about coffins, dead veterans and the passing of his son, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., found a way to lower America’s discourse, and sow the very division Biden spent much of his speech pushing against.
She bragged about her comment – a scream from the House floor – on Twitter: “When Biden said flag draped coffins I couldn’t stay silent. I told him directly he did it. He put 13 in there.” She’s referring to 13 service members who died as the United States was evacuating Americans and allies from Afghanistan last summer.
Four years of my life
In America, we welcome political disagreement. We’re working to protect Ukraine from Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man whose country jails protesters and poisons political dissidents. We stand united in our belief that Putin’s autocratic leadership is wrong. But there is also something wrong with reducing what should be thoughtful political discourse – done at the right time with real information – to a shameful and antagonizing heckle.
The congresswoman’s comments about a 20-year war perpetuated by leaders in both parties were misleading and lacked context. She not only lowered discourse, she disrespected the office of the presidency.
I am a veteran. I spent four years of my life in the Army as an Arabic linguist. I come from a family of veterans.
And I am angry.
Anger, grief and frustration
Biden choked up talking about the loss of his son – a moment no parent should ever have to experience. When Boebert interrupted him, I also got choked up out of a combination of anger, grief and frustration.
No one should have their thoughts about service member sacrifice stifled. Everyone should be able to speak about the loss of a loved one. When she stifled the president, she was also stifling me. Surely others who have lost loved ones felt that, too.
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In the same tweet, Boebert mentioned that “our heroic servicemen and women deserve so much better.”
Boebert does not speak for me. And neither do other members of the GOP who reinforced her sentiments on social media.
Dwindling health care for veterans
Are they really supporting service members? Or cloaking their desire for division in false patriotism?
If Boebert and the others who support her want to do something real for military veterans, they can start by distancing themselves from everything she did Tuesday night. False bravado and empty tweets do nothing for members of the military. But finding a way to avoid putting U.S. troops in another conflict would save lives and help families. So would getting behind Biden’s call for increased mental health services at veterans hospitals across the country.
I’m not angry at Boebert just because I’m a veteran. I’m angry because I’m an American, and I recognize that at a time when military enlistment has been low, veterans are being overused in the battlefield and underserved on the home front.
Suicide rates are higher among veterans than the general population. And that’s not the fault of one president. The conflict in Afghanistan has lasted through multiple administrations, and veterans’ services have increasingly dwindled.
Until heckles turn into real solutions, we should all be angry.
Eileen Rivers is the projects editor for USA TODAY’s Opinion section.
