The hoo-hah over “Duty, Honor, Country”

“Duty, Honor, Country.”

That is the motto of the United States Military Academy and it is not changing. You may have gotten a different impression from some conservative voices.

It is being removed from West Point’s mission statement, a statement that is changed periodically, according to the Associated Press.

I first heard about this on Dom Giordano’s afternoon show on WPHT/1210-AM and he was filled with righteous indignation over the idea that a “perfect” phrase — his word — would be removed from the mission statement.

I got the impression from him that “Duty, Honor, Country” was being replaced as the mission statement by the following word salad: “To build, educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character committed to the Army Values and ready for a lifetime of service to the Army and Nation.”

AP reported: “As we have done nine times in the past century, we have updated our mission statement to now include the Army Values,” academy spokesperson Col. Terence Kelley said Thursday. Those values — spelled out in other documents — are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage, he said.

“Duty, Honor, Country” was added to the mission statement in 1998, and now has been removed, but it remains as the motto of the school.

Dom did not make that clear while I was listening. (In response to an email, he told me he believed he did make that clear.) He and other right-wing talk show hosts used the issue to springboard into a charge that creeping Wokeism is ruining our military.

There may be something to that. The mission of the military can be expressed in two words:  Protect America.

Everything else is window dressing. The military has been and should be a meritocracy, and Woke hates merit because it cancels equity.

To protect America, when necessary, we ask our military to kill other human beings, irrespective of race, religion, nationality, gender, ethnicity, or food choice. In that sense, the U.S. military is DEI dense. It will kill anyone.

Still chewing on the Woke bone, Dom wondered if the motto would be changed from the “perfect” “Duty, Honor, Country” to something like Diversity, Equity, Inclusion!

That one got me and I laughed out loud. I imagined hearing that as a cheer as Army plays Navy. “Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!”

Why stop there, I thought.

How about the Equitable States of America?

The Pledge of Subservience to Diversity?

Forget the Alamo! Embrace forgiveness.

The United Communities of Inclusion?

The Trans States of America?

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On his show, Dom ran a clip of an address of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, which was inspirational, even though the World War II hero later held controversial views, and was relieved by President Harry S Truman when the general clashed  with the president.

In the new mission statement, Dom complained that the cadets were pledged to “a lifetime of service to the Army and Nation.”

Dom conspiratorially kvetched that the mission said “Nation.” Why doesn’t it say “United States?”

Is there another nation? Was he thinking Wakanda?

My problem with the line was with “a lifetime of service.”

Lifetime? Some of the cadets may opt for a lifetime of service, but most don’t. No more than 40% do 20 or more years.

Maybe the mission statement ought to trashed and replaced with: “Duty, Honor, Country.”

Those are eternal American values, now more honored in the breach. The fewer the words, the better. Less is more. Simplicity.

Steer away from Woke inflation that adds words and lessens clarity. “Homeless” becomes “a person experiencing homelessness.” I know the argument. “Homeless” seems to describe and categorize the person, while “experiencing” makes it appear to be transitory. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. It doesn’t change the person’s homeless status. A “drug addict” is morphed into “someone experiencing an addiction to drugs.” The former drug addicts I asked said no softening should be permitted — it is a disease that should be attacked, not coddled. I have a “disabled” parking plaque for the car I use because I need a cane to walk. I am “disabled,” not “otherly abled” as some would have you say.

These silly euphemisms don’t actually spare anyone’s feelings. They are empathetic gibberish.

Let’s return to the big three words.

Duty? An alarmingly high number of Americans refuse to report for work at the main office.  They want to be Burger Kings and have it their way.

Honor? You don’t see much from politicians, and the retail crime wave across America suggests that some of their constituents are OK with the “Help yourself” culture, in this case helping themselves to other peoples’ property. We don’t seem to talk about honor any more.

Country? You mean the Red country, or the Blue country? The progressive coasts or the rock-ribbed conservative middle?

We can’t blame it on Covid. We started losing our national identity long before that virus came along.

 In the eight stages of democracy, I think we have achieved complacency, which I would re-label futility.

Some 70% of Americans do not want a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald J. Trump, but that’s what we are getting.

But I don’t think there will be a massive sick-out, with people sitting on the couch and not voting. I actually think vote totals in November will be a record high, and not just because  there are more Americans this year than four years ago.

Each side will bust a gut to turn out voters to cast ballots against the evil other guy who has been demonized.

Both sides are shouting that democracy is on the line, and neither side seems to have faith our democratic system will prevail over the “wrong” candidate winning.

To them, “Duty, Honor, Country” are just words.