Veterans Corner

Community Contributed

By Jesse Church

Aloha all my fellow veterans and residents of Molokai, old Jesse here with all the veterans news and upcoming events. I hope everyone has been following the news with all these police killings. I’m sure that everybody knows about Baltimore, MD in the last two weeks, and Ferguson, MO before that, and I’m sure you remember about the happenings in the “Big Apple,” New York City. What in the world is going on in this country, when you can’t even trust the police, who in the U.S. are billed as “America’s finest”?

When I was growing up, the police would walk a “beat,” not drive around in a car, and you could talk to the police offering walking a beat, ask him questions and get to know him. Today, that’s not the case anymore. You can’t talk to a police officer driving a car, can’t get to know him, and I think this has a lot to do with the problem. The police and the people in the community can’t forge a bond and get to know one another. Maybe it’s just that simple, but people will read more into it and try to make it sound complex.

What also worries me is these people that come after the incident and want to demonstrate. If they do it peacefully and legally, then I have no problem with that, but when they start to break the law and commit crimes, throw rocks and bottles at the police and use the original incident as an excuse to loot all the stores in the area, a lot of those stores will go out of business because of what they lost, especially small “ma and pa” stores, and that hurts the neighborhood. I don’t know what’s going on in this country anymore, with all the protestors, all the looters stealing from innocent people and companies, and our young people, some of whom are trying to go to the Middle East to become terrorists. Our country is being destroyed from within, and if we don’t do something about it starting right now, our country will be no more. If nobody is going to do anything about this situation, then I guess it’s up to my sister and brother veterans and myself to do something about it. We have done it before in wars around the world and by God, we can do it again. People need to look in their heart and see what they’re doing to the country and stop it now, or the veterans will stop you.

So before you go out and loot another store, or throw another rock or bottle at the police, stop for a minute and think what you’re doing. Please don’t make veterans of the U.S. put on the uniform again.

I wish at this time to thank all the people of Molokai for all the information that you give to me, it’s a great help in writing this column. Have a wonderful week and remember that old Jesse loves each and every person of Molokai dearly from my heart. Until next week, aloha.