Research before casting your Vote

I am the widow of a soldier. I truly hate election years. I am tired of the Military community being used as political pawns. Both sides are guilty of this. In my opinion most civilians and politicians have no idea how to relate or interact with our military community (Active duty, Veterans, their Families and the Survivors). It feels like they use us for photo ops and talking points but nothing really changes.

Both Trump and Biden seem to have worked to improve the lives and well being for the military community. There have been “wins” for both of them. I have also seen a lot of misquoting or taking comments out of context. I have also seen that most of the wins, thanks to Congress, are placating or palliative in nature instead true care or reform for the military community that is needed. Yes we need to pay attention to whoever the president is or will potentially be since it is the President who guides our nation and who represents us on the world stage. Vote for who you believe the best option is for you. This means you need to really look into the candidates, not just what the many forms of media offer. Look into the voting history, statements, and actions of all. This should be done for Congress too. I think the biggest problem our nation and our people face, comes from the combination of ALL of our elected officials, Local, State & Federal level positions that the average person voting has not researched independently.

I do not have all the answers but as long as our elected officials receive only the information filtered through their respective parties and are so far insulated from the people and advocates who really care for the issues, we will continue to have problems without viable solutions. I would love to see all the members of the legislative & executive branches of the federal government, sit down and really work these issues out instead of playing political games with the lives and well-being of our military community.