Slow and Steady TeambuildingVeterans have one thing in common. We all share the experience of entry training into military service. All can tell tales of personal doubt, hardships, and humor, and, eventually, graduation. The common outcome was a new perspective on yourself, your teammates, and your Service. This training is intended to remove you from victim status and convince you that personal responsibility, discipline, and teamwork are essential in accomplishing the Mission – a word you likely heard daily and understood much better upon graduation.
And ask yourself why and how you react to the events around us today? The secure border; the successful evacuation of Afghanistan; the AWOL leaders; the blame game; no bail and no consequences; Covid truths, etc. Our reactions are predictable and likely similar. The apparent lack of honesty, accountability, competence, and personal responsibility stand out. Such conclusions and common reactions come from very early training and daily reinforcement in Service and our own lived lives. While it’s true that Veterans are not all the same, I believe it’s equally true they all recognize BS when they see it.
I recount our initial service training to make a point. We can and have overcome challenges, we’ve served, and we’ve prevailed. We’ve rejected the role of victim, very early on. In hard times it may be easiest to shrink from challenge, leave change to others, and doubt our own ability to succeed; “It just doesn’t matter.” But we’ve learned to act to change our circumstances as an individual, a teammate, or a leader in service to our country, in defense of our Constitution, to benefit our fellow citizens, to get the mission accomplished.
American Veterans Vote believes that mission continues. And that mission takes us into new spaces – political spaces – where our continued service matters. In most cases, such service involves voting, volunteering, or leading. While we can always do better, the very good news is Veterans do vote at a higher percentage than our fellow citizens. And at any community event, you’re likely to find Veterans quietly getting the work done. Such work is typically uniting, building, teaching, or improving community life. That same quiet, steady pace of work empowers political change. The greatest contribution Veterans can so often make is time, expertise, and perspective. We’re past recognition or awards. We work for our families, our towns, and our team. To step forward and lead is the optimum contribution but consider coaching and mentoring equally important.
AVV exists to empower a Veteran team of teams to exercise their collective power in support of political change that supports Veterans, service members and their families, the defense of our Constitution, and the security of our Nation at home and abroad. Thankfully, a solid group of Veterans in AVV never leave the playing field in Virginia. Our focus on empowering these teams never flags. The essence of success in politics centers on good candidates, the right issues, strong campaigns, and solid finances. We’ve developed the tools, networks, and practices (TTP’s!) over three years to enable our Veteran team of teams to help achieve victory in the close races that dominate today’s Virginia elections. This website is just one of those new tools enabling planning and communications.
We now need players on the field, building their team strengths, focusing on a game plan for victory at the ballot box. Great regional team leaders have lists in hand of nearby members. We can now text important messages, distribute data that targets our actions, and invite support behind key actions in this coming election cycle. And we can inform the debate with accurate voter information!
We are nowhere near 24/7 activity. That may come much later. Now, it’s teambuilding, slow and steady.
Every Veteran, Every Vote. Calm, competent, up to the task. No victims.
Veterans Forward!
Bob Wood
LTG (R), US Army
CEO, American Veterans Vote
by
COL (R) Michael B. “Yama” Hoyes
The disciple Mark relates an event that happened to Jesus, where Jesus articulates the “problem” with division. From Mark 3:24-25 we read, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
As a group of veterans and those who support veterans, let us strive for unity in our efforts! Of course, we need to continuously pray for our nation, but also, we need to encourage our fellow veterans and those who support them to UNITE with us and VOTE!
Jim Bowden, US Army (Ret)
Veterans Vote Their Virginia ValuesWe have an election every year in Virginia. Many elections result in 125 cities and counties voting one way and eight cities and counties voting the other way. That split between Republican and Democrat is deeper than party politics. If you peel the onion below party, candidate, issues, and campaign, you get down to core differences in worldview and culture that sound boring, but really matter. And, you see that most Veterans live traditional Virginia values. They should vote them to keep them.
Virginia values are American values with a unique regional and historical touch because America started here in 1607. Moreover, the ideas which embody our values were put into writing by Virginians at our founding. While the fighting in our American Revolution started in Massachusetts, it ended in victory at Yorktown, Virginia.
Our traditional Virginia and American values begin with Natural Law and treasured God-given individual rights. Our individual liberties include the freedom of opportunities and choices in a free market economy. We cherish equality, especially after a long struggle to the victory of the Civil Rights Movement. We respect the rule of law. We do our civic duty as citizens.
Our values are summed up as family, freedom, and faith. But, voters interpret them differently.
The difference isn’t based on whether we’re Virginians by natural circumstances – who grew up in VA, by choice – who choose to live in VA, or by chance – whose address is VA because their work is here. Or even, as it is for one in ten Virginia voters, if we were born outside of these United States.
The divide is how Virginia voters answer the question, “Who decides?”
Who decides and in fact, who should decide what in your life? Your personal safety, healthcare, the education of your children and grandchildren, what kind of car you can buy, the price of energy, what jobs are available, where you live, and on and on. What should you decide for you and your family? What should government decide for you?
No matter when you came to Virginia, if you hold to family, freedom and faith and lean towards individual autonomy in tightly knit communities, then the whole of Virginia history becomes your heritage. Your contributions to your community become your Virginia legacy.
Also, Virginians have regional differences, call it subcultures, from colonial times. They’re still here, despite the homogenization of American culture. The terms Southern hospitality, New York minute, and Midwest manners illustrate real differences.
The two subcultures that formed Virginia were English Tidewater Cavaliers and the Frontier Scot-Irish. Other subcultures – Indian tribes, enslaved Africans, French Huguenot refugees – assimilated into those regional sub-cultures before the Revolution. People from many others followed, especially after World War II.
You could see the difference in the past 20 years when conservatives on the Northern Neck kept their Democrat delegate because of his family name while conservatives in the Piedmont took out an incumbent Congressmen who offended their values. The differences aren’t night and day, but they’re interesting to see.
Meanwhile, the metropolitan crescent of NoVa, Richmond, and Tidewater (Hampton Roads) is evolving like all urban areas across America as crossroads of the world. Yet, the “live and let live” culture in Virginia makes them different from other cities and suburbs.
Veterans bring a perspective to Virginia values that every Vet should learn in basic training. Namely, there are good people of every color, shape, size, language or accent, education, social standing, and corner of America. When Veterans serve overseas, they learn the same thing applies to people from everyplace on the planet. And, if you treat people with dignity and respect you can connect person to person.
Veterans know the real value of “diversity” is what each, unique individual brings to their unit – their team. It’s the strength in unity of effort, purpose, and the selfless sacrifices individuals make for others to succeed and win. It isn’t the phony diversity of divisive political group identities. It’s how Veterans call one another brother and sister – and mean it.
Veterans live the Virgina-shaped values of family, freedom, and faith. They didn’t serve in the Armed Forces of the U.S. government to be ruled and taxed excessively by government at any level. They – we – served to stay free. It’s the Virginia way. Virginia’s Veterans should vote their values.
Are You Happy With the State of Things?
Elected officials are supposed to represent the interests and concerns of the people who elected them. Constituents can guide the legislative actions of elected officials through engagement – to encourage or discourage. Lacking any direction or feedback from the electorate, legislators could be swayed by outside interests to enact detrimental policies.
If you’ve never written your elected Virginia official before, start here at this link.
Enter your address or zip code and your elected official is revealed, usually with a link to their website. At the website, click on the contact link where you’ll fill out a contact form – name, address, phone number, etc. Then there’ll be a space for you to state your message, and to specify whether you want a response. You’ll also find links nearby to subscribe to the officeholder’s newsletters and e-mail updates.
Some tips for contacting your lawmaker via their website:
The telephone is another option and is especially useful when a vote is forthcoming. Call your legislator’s office, identify yourself as a constituent, and state to the aide or staff member that you want it registered that in your opinion, the legislator should do X or Y. You can find the phone number to use at the legislator’s website.
In either case – website or telephone, legislator staff members are supposed to track the volume of messages they receive on various topics, and these can help sway the thinking of lawmakers.
American Veterans Vote, Inc. (AVV) is a volunteer team of Veterans and Veteran supporters. We are a 527 Political Action Committee with a nationally-focused mission to promote the political power of Veterans and Veteran supporters in support of our three strategic goals:
AVV’s goal is to help Veterans maximize their political voice by supporting Veterans’ ability to Vote, Volunteer and Lead.
“Every Veteran, Every Vote.”
We don’t speak FOR Veterans… we speak AS Veterans.
PAID FOR BY AMERICAN VETERANS VOTE
