EVERY VETERAN EVERY VOTE…NOW, NOW, NOW!
To vote by absentee voting:
Go to the website here. Click on the tab “Apply to Vote Absentee by Mail” and fill out the short application. Your ballot will arrive by mail. Fill out your ballot and mail or drop it off at your registrar’s office.
To cast your vote in-person right now:
Early voting is ongoing now. Go to your registrar’s office and cast your vote. Find your registrar’s office here.
We are at a critical crossroads. We need the united vote of Veterans and Veteran Supporters across Virginia. It’s very clear that Change needs to happen:
The brilliance of our Constitution, the intelligence of our citizens, and the collective resolve of those who value this nation are key to this nation’s realignment of priorities, recovery of national purpose, and restoration of a strong Constitutional Republic. We can achieve Change through the ballot box. We must elect those with the demonstrated competence, record, and leadership to defend that which matters, change that which doesn’t, and demonstrate the ability to explain the difference to the American people!
What can Veterans do? First, we Must all vote. Get registered, if you’re not. And Vote Early if you can. 1 in 10 residents in Virginia are Veterans. Our numbers matter and dominate at the margin of our ever-close elections. You can make the difference.
VETERANS FORWARD
EVERY VETERAN EVERY VOTE
Bob Wood
LTG (R), USA
CEO, American Veterans Vote
by
Michael B. “Yama” Hoyes
COL (R), USAF
I’ve been reading the Old Testament Book, Esther. That book and the Song of Songs are the only books in the Hebrew Bible that do not explicitly mention God. The book tells of a Jewish woman in Persia, named Esther, who becomes the Queen of Persia and thwarts a genocide of her Jewish people. Within that book, though there is no explicit mention of God, did you catch that the Jewish woman becomes Queen of Persia AND thwarts the genocide of her people? Persia was roughly located in modern day Iran. Even today, the Jewish festival of Purim celebrates the saving of the Jews from annihilation in roughly 500 BC.
There is one other poignant aspect of that Esther story. She was reminded that, “who knows, but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
Have you ever considered YOUR placement in history? Have you thought of why God placed you here (this nation, this time period, etc.) now and not in the distant past or future?
So, fellow Vets, the ask is pretty simple:
Perhaps we are here for such a time as this, to VOTE
Perhaps we are here for such a time as this, to VOLUNTEER
Perhaps we are here for such a time as this, to LEAD
There is no other time such as this for us, and we are desperately needed, NOW! VOTE, VOLUNTEER, LEAD!
Hurricane Helene has been devastating, with fellow citizens through no fault of their own, needing food, water, power, housing and more. Veterans and those who are currently serving have an opportunity to help others in need. We remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:44- 45: “‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help You?’ [The Master ] will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'”
The need is now. Veterans, active duty and those who support them, stand up again by helping those in need.
Click below to donate:
Samaritan’s Purse: 10.8% overhead
American Red Cross: 19.7% overhead.
By
Elizabeth Mc Call
Veteran, U.S. Army
It is difficult to watch the “reimagining” of the American military without a sense of foreboding. The Biden administration’s strong tendency to recast the missions, priorities, and personnel policies of our Armed Forces in terms of political and ideological goals rather than warfighting ends could have dark consequences for our country. Such efforts not only undermine training and readiness for war, but also risk politicizing domestically what must remain a non-partisan, apolitical institution. Just as the Constitution is the bulwark of the Republic, the military remains the shield of both. These dangers underscore the need to act to protect our military at the ballot box before it is too late.
A politicized military poses two threats. One is functional: diluting its ability to defend the country by compromising how we train our troops and how we develop and select leadership to serve in the most difficult crises. The second is how such a military itself could eventually be abused as an instrument of power in a growing single-party state, bypassing the constitution and suppressing dissent.
Peacetime militaries, especially in democracies, rarely cultivate the leadership required for victory. World War II taught us the dangers of going to war with leadership at all levels unequal to the task before them, as the early disasters in both North Africa and the Pacific demonstrated. In Europe in particular, the Army struggled to work through its organizational troubles from the landings in North Africa to those in Italy. Yet these were sins of omission, with commands assigned based on seniority in a stagnant peacetime officer corps and complicated by the challenges of rapidly expanding our forces. These problems were only resolved in the course of many months of war.
What we now face is a military deliberately distracted and possibly unprepared for the enormous tasks and sacrifices before it should war come. Selecting — or removing — leadership based consciously on political or ideological goals will likely cause chaos when put to the test in combat, as Stalin’s purges of tens of thousands of talented officers in the 1930s demonstrated in the disastrous summer of 1941. Add to this the required training devoted to politically motivated ends rather than warfighting quickly places military readiness and our country at risk. Both are sins of commission, outside choices imposed on our services. Unlike WWII, we will not have the cushion of time to rectify the failures of misguided peacetime policies.
More troubling could be a politicized military that eventually finds itself charged with enforcing domestic ideological goals, and with loyalties demanded of it which fundamentally conflict with its duty to protect the Constitution and the country. What might happen if political leadership, emboldened as electoral accountability weakens, grows increasingly authoritarian in its ambitions regarding such matters as limiting of freedom of speech or other constitutional rights? What happens if the temptation of the misuse of power spreads from civil bureaucratic leadership to military? What checks will still be in place to prevent disaster if loyalty shifts from Constitution to party, and our military shifts from shield of the Republic to bulwark of the State?
These are existential questions for our military and for our country – and unfortunately they begin to appear less theoretical as the divisions in our nation over what were once shared values sharpen. History offers cautionary tales for the future and underscores the urgent need to actively protect our military from the dangers of ideologues and party politics. We have time still to act on the lessons learned by others at great cost. The bulwark of the shield is our vote.
Every Veteran, Every Vote
The October 5th Countryside Barbecue Veteran Event was a huge hit with over 200 attendees. The event took place on the beautiful grounds of the host, Mr. John Pruitt and was catered by Mission BBQ. Guest speakers were U.S. Army Veteran Derrick Anderson, Candidate for the U.S. House, Virginia District 7, and AVV CEO LTG (R) Bob Wood.
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
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