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My Point of View by Joe Pacovsky

Katherine and I toured the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery near Arnhem in the Netherlands. This cemetery contains 1764 graves of soldiers who fought in the operation Market Garden battle at Arnhem. The cemetery is the final resting place for 1684 Commonwealth soldiers, plus 79 Polish and one American who was fighting in the Polish Army. The American is R. Tice who died Sept. 22, 1944, at the age of 22. He was rejected by the U.S. Army because of hearing problems, so he joined the Polish Army to fight tyranny. The people of the Netherlands revere all the soldiers who died to free them from tyranny.

Former President Trump has called people who joined the military “suckers” and “losers” and asked, what’s in it for them? The rest of the world calls them heroes.

When the honor flights to Washington, D.C., started, I asked my father, who was a medic in the Second World War European theater, whether he ever wanted to go back to Europe. His answer was no — everyone was starving when he was there. Our tour guide confirmed this — her family dug up tulip bulbs to eat to have something to fill their stomachs.

Ukraine is fighting for their freedom from the tyranny of the brutal Russian invasion. Ukraine is fighting alone against the Russian invasion. Russia has threatened our NATO allies including Poland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. A look at the map makes it obvious why the Baltic countries will be Russia’s next target. We must support Ukraine in their fight against Russia. I don’t want my grandson who is in the National Guard fighting in Europe like my father. An attack on a NATO country would require us to actively defend them.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is refusing to vote on any more aid for Ukraine. Trump has ordered Speaker Johnson to not bring aid to Ukraine to a vote even though 90% of the money stays in the U.S., including two production lines in Minnesota. This apparently is revenge for Ukraine’s refusal to bend to blackmail to fabricate dirt on President Biden before the 2020 election or not wanting to offend his soulmate Putin.

Lev Parnas’s testimony is clear: “I have never wavered from saying that there was no evidence of the Bidens’ corruption in Ukraine — because there truly was none.”

We have a Republican Party, the party of Eisenhower and Reagan, turning its back on protecting freedom. The party who calls the people who attacked the Capitol to overthrow an election on Jan. 6 “patriots” and those who were convicted and are serving time “hostages.” I thought the Republican Party would straighten itself out, separate the wheat from the chaff and throw out the chaff. I was wrong. The Republican Party has turned into a personality cult and is throwing out anyone who doesn’t conform.

Joe Pacovsky is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.