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Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to

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Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few

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Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're

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Speaker 1: doing our part to keep writers safe. We're cleaning like

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Speaker 1: Neville before. You have found halfs out of suns of

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Speaker 1: statist no masks, no Metro need one. We have a

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Speaker 1: few extras at Metro. We're doing our part to keep

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Speaker 1: the DC area moving. Find out more at Well not

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Speaker 1: a dot com slash doing our part. We wanted to

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Speaker 1: have a chat, at least briefly with Salina Zito of

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Speaker 1: the National. She's a national political reporter for the Washington

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Speaker 1: Examiner magazine who took on a project recently that we

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Speaker 1: found very compelling. Indeed, uh selena Is was a Pittsburgh

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Speaker 1: based calumnist and reporter, also a calumnist at the New

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Speaker 1: York Post. Helena, how are you good morning? How are you?

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Speaker 1: We're good. We we found the summation of your your

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Speaker 1: recent project so interesting. The five people you met talked

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Speaker 1: to got to know who are all called the duty

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Speaker 1: by nine eleven. Um, it had to be fascinating project

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Speaker 1: talking all of them, absolutely so. As a journalist, UM,

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Speaker 1: the way I approach reporting is that I don't fly,

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Speaker 1: and they don't take interstates. So the people that I

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Speaker 1: often talked to, UM I only take back roads. You

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Speaker 1: and I could hang out. That's my way to travel

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Speaker 1: to That's the only way you can see the country.

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Speaker 1: That's right. And you also can understand the changes that

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Speaker 1: are going on in the country and have a real

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Speaker 1: bird's eye view of who we really are as opposed

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Speaker 1: to sometimes how the national news tends to sort of,

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Speaker 1: you know, narrow us down to this certain ten percent

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Speaker 1: and so so, in talking with veterans over the years,

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Speaker 1: UM I thought it was really important, UH to go

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Speaker 1: back and talk and and listen to their viewpoints of

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Speaker 1: how their lives have changed since that moment um on

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Speaker 1: September eleven, when all of them UH felt this compelling

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Speaker 1: Paul's duty UH and and and two of them were

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Speaker 1: already in the military and in various degrees. UH Senator

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Speaker 1: Jonny Ernst was already in the UH in in the

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Speaker 1: re reserves, and General Lloyd Austin was already, UM, you know,

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Speaker 1: twenty eight years into his career in the military. But

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Speaker 1: Taylor Cleveland, UM, UH, Victor Lewis, and Sean Parnell are

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Speaker 1: are three men that that had had not ever served

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Speaker 1: and and so one of those not true Victor's Lewis

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Speaker 1: did serve UM. But but you know, they were all

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Speaker 1: just felt they had to be there and protect all

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Speaker 1: of us. And and it's I think it's fascinating. And

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Speaker 1: I don't think we think about this enough, but we

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Speaker 1: one half of one of people in this country are

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Speaker 1: currently serving UM in the military. And UM, these are

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Speaker 1: this elite group of people. UM are the ones that

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Speaker 1: protect us literally from the bad guys. That's an incredible statistic,

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Speaker 1: by the way. So how are they how are they

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Speaker 1: feeling now all these years later? H Well, all of

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Speaker 1: them would uh join tomorrow if if their country called them,

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Speaker 1: they would they would they would go and just um

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Speaker 1: just jump right in. Taylor Cleveland, I think is fascinating

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Speaker 1: because he was he comes from a long line of

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Speaker 1: military people, but he was unable to enlist in right

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Speaker 1: out of high school because he blew his knee out

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Speaker 1: playing football. Uh. Interestingly enough, by night eleven, uh he

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Speaker 1: decided he was going to join UM, much to the

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Speaker 1: chagrin of his wife. And I think chagrin is probably

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Speaker 1: a nice word. Uh. She she was really mad and

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Speaker 1: he she told him now she was four weeks from

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Speaker 1: having their first child, and he went and did it

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Speaker 1: anyway behind her back. He didn't think they would take

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Speaker 1: him uh a roll and behold. Before he even got home,

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Speaker 1: the military had called and said congratulations and you um,

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Speaker 1: you have now officially joined uh the Navy. And his

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Speaker 1: wife was the one that got the call on the

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Speaker 1: family voice mail. So um, that was an interesting time

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Speaker 1: in his marriage. Well and having read the piece, and

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Speaker 1: it's absolutely terrific. There are people who became United States senators.

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Speaker 1: There are there was one guy at least who did

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Speaker 1: jail time. There was some pretty significant PTSD. UM. Just yeah,

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of different takeaways. Yeah, Victor Lewis um

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Speaker 1: a really bright guy um of and felt a cult

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Speaker 1: duty since he was seventeen years old and joined again

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Speaker 1: against his mother's wishes. Uh. She really wanted him to

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Speaker 1: go to college. Very very bright young man. Um. But

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Speaker 1: you know, he was also one of nine children um

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Speaker 1: and living in a poor part of Cleveland, uh and

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Speaker 1: and African American, and he really just understood that his

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Speaker 1: mother would not be able to afford it. So he

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Speaker 1: saw the military as not only just a way to

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Speaker 1: get a college education, but who also started to his country.

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Speaker 1: He found out that he loved military service so much

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Speaker 1: so that he kept three and listening. I think he

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Speaker 1: realisted five times. Uh. He was sent to UM Afghanistan

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Speaker 1: and Uh and he it was so funny. I said

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Speaker 1: to him, whereever shot at because now and Tod how

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Speaker 1: about mortar? Nope? And Taylor Cleveland. His best friend said, dude,

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Speaker 1: you were hit by a rocket? UM? So Uh he was.

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Speaker 1: He he had his legs shattered by rocket fire. UM

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Speaker 1: was immediately shipped back first to UM uh military or

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Speaker 1: medical operation in the Afghanistan, then to Germany, and then

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Speaker 1: back ultimately to the United States and UM medically discharged.

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Speaker 1: And that's where his PTSD came in, not because he

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Speaker 1: was hit, but because he felt he couldn't go back

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Speaker 1: and take care of his guys. He says in the story,

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Speaker 1: those are my men. You know, I nobody could take

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Speaker 1: care of them in the way that I took care

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Speaker 1: of them. And and that began a long discent in

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Speaker 1: his life. UM. And ultimately he ended up serving thirty

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Speaker 1: UM months in jail for a stabbing UH incident. But

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Speaker 1: it's it's well worth reading. UM. How how he's doing

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Speaker 1: it today well and Selenastos online, she writes for The

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Speaker 1: Washington Examiner magazine, the part I'm really enjoyed about the

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Speaker 1: pieces it does and pick a single narrative like that

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Speaker 1: gentleman's uh, you know, unfortunate post military run there although

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Speaker 1: he's turned his life around in a wonderful way. It

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Speaker 1: just looks at the variety of experiences and reactions and

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Speaker 1: the rest of it. I think it's it's really good

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Speaker 1: and really interesting. Selena Zito will have a link so

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Speaker 1: people can find their way to the peace. It's terrific.

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Speaker 1: Keep driving the back roads and we'd love to talk

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Speaker 1: again sometime. That would be wonderful. Thank you so much. Oh,

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Speaker 1: it's our pleasure. Thanks. That's set that one half of

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Speaker 1: one percent of people serving the military is uh is

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Speaker 1: pretty troubling. Yeah, and uh so I saw an author

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Speaker 1: on book TV to day. I'm trying to remember the

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Speaker 1: reason he was speaking, but anyway, his point he made

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Speaker 1: he had just won some award for a conservative book award. Um.

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Speaker 1: He was making a point about the cohesion that we've

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Speaker 1: got in this country right now and the sense of

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Speaker 1: community and the sense of what was the book about

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Speaker 1: nationalism and how we could use a little more nationalism,

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Speaker 1: a little more you know, a feeling like we're all

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Speaker 1: part of something. And how in Israel, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: they have mandatory service. Everybody goes in the military. But

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Speaker 1: he said, everybody in Israel knows you can get out

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Speaker 1: of it. There are a lot of different there's so

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Speaker 1: many ways to get out of it. Everybody can get

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Speaker 1: out of it, but almost nobody does. In the United States,

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Speaker 1: you've got one half of one percent of people serving

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Speaker 1: at all, and and plenty of people who think that

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Speaker 1: those people are stupid for doing it right. And that's

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Speaker 1: a problem. Diversity is not our greatest strength. Unity is

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Speaker 1: our greatest strength, and it's soreally lacking too much. He plurabius.

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Speaker 1: Not enough union, Yeah, Joonah Goldberg says I and and

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Speaker 1: well said Jonah i Ah, that's one of a couple

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Speaker 1: of mod Darren attitudes that really bother me. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if we can have unity with diversity, then we're unbeatable,

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Speaker 1: which is what we've always had. But those who claim

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Speaker 1: to be for diversity or somehow anti unity, which is

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Speaker 1: it's like to be pro woman, you have to be

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Speaker 1: anti man. That's the attitude of the idiot and the

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Speaker 1: person who's just filled with anger and looking for somewhere

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Speaker 1: to direct it. It's not a philosophy that makes any

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Speaker 1: sense whatsoever. You're ready to ride Metro, we want you

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Speaker 1: to know we're ready for you. Here are just a

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Speaker 1: few of the people at Metro to tell you how

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Speaker 1: we're doing our part to keep riders safe. We clean

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Speaker 1: you like never before. Hospital a great clean you've found,

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Speaker 1: hands down, the sound of statist. No masks, no Metro

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Speaker 1: need one. We have a few extras at Metro. We're

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Speaker 1: doing our part to keep the DC area moving. Find

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Speaker 1: out more at will mata dot com slash doing our

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Speaker 1: part