Re: Homefront 2
Malena Bower
A week or two after homecoming, we met up with some of the civilian friends I had made while he was gone for a celebratory lunch. As politicos, they had their thoughts and philosophies around war, the defense budget, and the use of violence rather than diplomacy. They asked the standard questions and made the standard assumptions.
We have an opportunity to continue this conversation and make meaningful change, but we will only be able to do that if we can overcome the divisiveness that permeates our national security and diplomacy efforts to work with people who think, vote, and believe differently than us. As I learned from the One America Movement, our toxicity makes it impossible to make progress on the issues that matter. We cannot wait any longer for our public servants to come together and make meaningful changes to how we engage in war and care for our families on the homefront, or to address the visible and invisible wounds they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Heather Aliano is a proud active duty Air Force spouse living in Illinois and the president of the board of advisors for the Secure Families Initiative, a nonpartisan group of proud military families, united by love of country and commitment to service. You can follow her on Twitter @heatheraliano.
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