Three weeks ago, in an October afternoon, 12 American soldiers were on their way to a Nigerian village to gather important intelligence on Islamic extremist terrorists. On the way there, they were viciously attacked by 50 ISIS fighters with suicide vests and suicide cars. The 12 U.S. special ops soldiers managed to fend of two massive waves of these attacks; however, this victory did not come without loss. Four incredibly brave U.S. Green Berets died in the firefight, protecting the country they love. Their bodies were found by their fellow countrymen, who worked tirelessly all day to find all of them.

It was a tragedy, as President Trump knew, and after gathering all of the intelligence from the operation, he proceeded to write and call the families associated to those soldiers. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, listened in on a phone call with the President of the United States consoling a grieving widow and bashed him on it by taking a quote out of context and then calling the President “cold hearted” and a “sick man,” as confirmed by The Hill. The disrespect shown here was absolutely incredible. This Democrat congresswomen,used for political gain a death of a U.S. service member in order to further her agenda. This angered many in the Trump Administration, especially Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a former marine general. He came up to the podium in the White House Briefing Room and gave one of the most emotional and impactful statements that we have ever seen come out of the White House. He informed Americans about the somber task of taking an American servicemans body back home, speaking on how these American heroes are “packed in ice and sent to connecting airbases around the world to get home”. In Kelly’s words, they are then “embalmed, meticulously dressed with their medals and then put on the flight home with a casualty officer”.

When the President asked Kelly for his advice on calling the deceased families, Kelly said to tell the grieving families that “he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed” and that “when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this Earth: his friends.” He then describes how irate he was when he went to work the next day and saw the comments that Congresswoman Wilson made. He walked around Arlington National Cemetery, a place Kelly describes as where you can find “the finest men and women on this Earth” to collect his thoughts and then came to the conclusion that unfortunately, the sacredness of a young man or woman dying for this country is slowly starting to erode against political agendas

Kelly’s powerful speech was just one of many voices that came out against Congresswoman Wilson. After such a shellacking by General Kelly, Wilson now resorted to what many in her party do best, which is call her opponent, a distinguished four star general a “racist.” Unfortunately, this is now the political environment we live in, where using dead soldiers for political gain and publicity becomes the norm. This instance, along with many others, is the reason why American morals are starting to fade. Americans must understand that political debate is fine, but dragging in soldiers who died for your right to even exchange in that political debate is distasteful.

I doubt Congresswoman Wilson will care about these criticisms, but thankfully, she doesn’t represent America. We as Americans have a duty to uphold decency, even when some of us can’t. For if we lose that founding value of decency, we will lose everything this country represents and make it fall into the abyss of discord and fear.