Fort Bliss, Texas Is A Long Way From Malibu

That Fort Bliss, Texas will be the site of a 5,000 bed camp to house, immigrants questionably arrested by the Trump Administration gives me a sharp pang, for I spent four months there in the Winter of 1957, ironically in good faith training to defend the Constitution.

And now in a depressing present the Constitution to which I pledged allegiance is being wantonly violated in blatant acts of treason by a sitting president.

A long way from my present Malibu, the Army base then as I assume now is a notoriously hostile environment, hot during the day, freezing at night, tortured by high wind and stinging sand that even the resident scorpion population tries to avoid.

That made me as an acting sergeant then to remind my platoon bivouacking in the White Sands desert to double check their sleeping bags before turning in at night.

I would label making Fort Bliss a home for anyone an act of cruelty, despicably typical of the shameful Trump presidency. It prompted me after my tour of service to write an article entitled “The Unwilling, Led by the Incompetent to do the Unnecessary.”

Having in the frightening present witnessed the violations of our Constitution and the right of due process, I now suggest an article more pointedly entitled, “Keep The Faith,” that however reluctant, we must do what we can to keep the light of Democracy lit.

The 2026 election and the defeat of the cowardly Congressional Republicans cannot come soon enough.