I have just spent a few days of sanity, inspiration, exhilaration and solidarity in, of all places, Washington DC. The event was the annual gala and advisory board meeting of With Honor Action which supports the bipartisan, 30-member For Country caucus in the House of Representatives. I am proud and humbled to be a member of the advisory board. But before I tell you about the inspiration and exhilaration of the past few days, let me tell you a story:
Twelve years ago, after spending several tours embedding with the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan—at a rather old age; Sanity Goddess was appalled—I wrote a cover story in Time Magazine called “The New Greatest Generation,” which posited that the troops I’d watched in action downrange were going to be a spectacular political leaders. It was only an idea then, a fantasy. But I was convinced, and remain so.
One of the people who appeared on that cover was an Army Captain, recently returned from service in Afghanistan. His name was Wes Moore and he had just written a book called The Other Wes Moore, about a fellow with his exact same name who had grown up a few blocks away in a tough part of Baltimore and was now serving a life sentence for murder. Moore’s thesis was that the one thing that had saved him from a similar fate, after years of anger and rebellion, was his experience in the U.S. military. He had come home, gotten his college degree, become a Rhodes Scholar and a White House fellow. An underachiever, clearly.
But more than that. “You want to go to jail with me?” Wes asked when I called. Sure. Of course. Wes was teaching his book to teenage felons at a Juvenile Detention Facility in Baltimore. It was obvious from the jump that Wes Moore radiated decency and humility—he knew he could have wound up on the other side of the steel bars—and intelligence. He was great with the kids.
Afterward, we went out for a burger and a beer. Almost immediately, he asked me: “So what about you? Tell me about your life.” I was at the time—you’re not going to believe this; well, maybe you are—covering a debt ceiling crisis, an imminent government shutdown. “It’s incredibly stupid and shameful,” I said, “and depressing.”
“Is there anything you’re optimistic about?” Wes asked.
“Yeah,” I said, pointing a finger at his chest. “You!” I told him about my theory that his generation of veterans were badly needed—”We still need you back home,” I said, quoting another veteran, Eric Greitens, who founded a public service organization for wounded veterans called The Mission Continues. “We need you to get involved in public life. You should think about running for office.”
Wes demurred, as any good politician would. But I could tell the thought wasn’t a stranger to his impressive frontal cortex. “You should think about running for mayor,” I pushed, foolishly. He demurred and went off to a strong career in the not-for-profit sector. He became one of the founders of the With Honor PAC. Last year, he finally ran for Governor of Maryland, endorsed and supported by With Honor, our first non-Congressional candidate. He won. And two nights ago, he was the featured speaker at the With Honor Gala. Which was an inspiration, but not a big deal: I fearlessly predict that Wes will be the featured speaker at a lot of events in the future.
What was important was his message: The very first bill he proposed—and passed—in Maryland was a public service program for local teenagers called SERVE. It’s just starting now. It will pay each young person, ages 18-21, who signs up for a public service program, $6000 a year in college tuition or a cash stipend.
“Service will save us,” Governor Moore said the other night. It’s become his mantra. It’s something he understands from personal experience. The U.S. Army saved him; he didn’t become the other Wes Moore (with whom he remains in contact, of course). In my book, Charlie Mike, I wrote about how service, the act of helping others, had been shown to be therapeutic for veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress. But more than that: the act of serving something larger than yourself is a necessity in a democracy like ours that, officially, doesn't ask very much of us. Service creates better citizens. Service, if applied to the serious work of a democracy—to police work, to teaching, to emergency services, to environmental protection and myriad other efforts—can help to create a better, more committed and idealistic government. This is an argument that is almost never made, but should be: a disciplined, rigorous, program of serious service will create a better, more effective government.
Yeah, well. Everyone loves the idea of national service but nobody really acts on it. Why not? You may well ask. Because it is threatening to existing government employees, who vote in droves. The police and teachers unions oppose it like the plague. To create a national ethic of service as a foundation stone of our democracy—and, believe me, we really need one—would involve more than t-shirt and litter-bag campaigns. It would need strong advocates, people willing to challenge the status quo, to confront the not-so-deep state. Wes Moore has started that process and other governors—most notably California’s Gavin Newsom—are beginning to join in.
But, back to the With Honor PAC and the For Country caucus: In today’s diseased Washington, it takes courage to sign the pledge—and there is a pledge to work together—and be a member of this bipartisan caucus. Congresswoman Marianette Miller-Meeks, an Iowa Republican, told me she had been censured by several local county committees merely because she had voted against Jim Jordan for House Speaker. Other members, Democrats, have told me privately of the pressure they’ve gotten from the left-wing of their party for simply associating with the Republican members, some of whom are Trump supporters. And one of those Trump supporters told me, “I’m really worried about the impact of climate change on my district. I can work quietly on that issue with several of the Democrats in the caucus, but it’s a tightrope—if I don’t support Trump, I’m gone.”
So it’s a cautious caucus, for now. Except on some issues: For Country has been vehement about getting Afghans who helped them downrange during the war out from the clutches of the Taliban. It is a National Security caucus, supporting the passage of aid for Ukraine, Israel and the National Defense Appropriation authorization. At the gala, Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of now infamous Lewiston, Maine—spoke with quiet passion, barely whispering, about the death of his best friend in combat and the need to build a monument on the Mall to those who died in the Global War on Terror, in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Caucus has led the fight for that, too. And, not surprisingly, the Caucus supports national service legislation. One speaker after another echoed Wes Moore’s “Service will save us” at the gala and expressed their frustration about the dysfunctional, hyper-partisan nature of the House.
But I want more. In the 1990s, I learned a lot from the five Senators who served in Vietnam—John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, John McCain, Max Cleland and Chuck Robb. They led the campaign for reconciliation with Vietnam and, in doing so, became the moral heart of the Senate. Soon, they were being consulted by their colleagues on other national security and humanitarian issues. That assignment is an order of magnitude more difficult in the wrecked, chaotic House, but I’d love to see the For Country caucus give it a try.
Here’s my current fantasy: Congressman Steve Womack of Arkansas, a Republican and Air Force veteran, has been a beacon of sanity, honor and valor throughout his career, and especially in recent weeks. He is quietly beloved on both sides of the aisle. He received the With Honor “Principles Above Politics” award the other night, and then gave a speech as moving and consequential as Wes Moore’s. In my perfect world, the For Country caucus would have led the way out of the morass and announced that they were supporting Womack, in bipartisan fashion, as Speaker of the House. The vast majority of members would have supported him in a secret ballot. (Womack responded to my suggestion with a perfectly military string of expletives and a pat on the back that I’ll never forget.)
So that’s my fantasy: that this generation of veterans in office, these remarkable people I’ve come to know and love, lead us past the Trump era, lead us back to what America can and should be. This may be InSanity, but if you want to share the dream of honor, civility and service—the core components of the With Honor pledge—you should pony up right here.
If you agree with my halting attempts to find a path toward Sanity, you might also consider signing up here:
What a coincidence your message is published the same day I visited George Washington and Georgetown on campus visits with my granddaughter. Both those schools reps echoed that virtuous message of Curia Personis. Thanks Joe, I’m starting to feel some optimism.
All good except Eric Greitens? How the honorable have fallen ....