America 1982-Chapter 474 - 87: Jeff’s Speech_4
"Fuck you! Without these veterans, their corpses would have already decayed to ashes, not even worth tripping over as vagrants!"
All the veterans in the audience shouted out in response to this statement. In the hearts of these scarred old soldiers, they were the ones who changed the world, who brought peace. Yet, the harsh reality was that they were now being humiliated, mocked, and even stopped by the police for buying a bottle of wine, as if they were not soldiers who had fought and been wounded for the United States but Soviet soldiers trapped in America, lacking any respect or status aside from their scars.
"The lucky survivors who enjoy peace discuss things in front of you, boasting about their worldliness, understanding of international affairs, every one of them appearing all-knowing, changing the world, making this country better. And us? According to them, we’re fools who know nothing but the cheapest brands of beer and the cheapest drugs."
"Fuck you! Cowards! We’ve seen the world, we’ve traveled to Italy, facing artillery and violent storms, forcefully landing on Sicily! We’ve traveled to France, driving destroyers through Omaha Beach to cover our allies, ignoring the risk of being sunk! We’ve traveled to Asia, to defeat Japan, turning Tokyo into a sea of flames with our planes!" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
"The world we’ve seen is countless times more than those fools currently jabbering! We brought peace! And then what? What did we reap?"
"A broken body riddled with scars! A pension so meager it’s insulting! A group of tools discarded by society and the times!"
Jeff’s eyes were already reddening as he choked up a bit, then continued, "I... I’ll tell you what we got. We also got the medical benefits with the highest surgical mortality rate! If you don’t understand, I can make it clearer... Fuck, I can hardly go on!"
"In a regular hospital, out of a hundred people, maybe one might accidentally die on the operating table. But at a Veterans Affairs hospital, out of a hundred old soldiers, four and a half won’t live to walk off the operating table! Fuck!"
"Why is it like this? Because the surgeons with better skills and more advanced medical equipment require more money, and those politicians in Washington are unwilling to allot funds for us, tools that are already considered discarded. They think that you’re old bastards who scare children on the streets and that you’re still alive is their grace!"
"Fuck you!"
"We are indeed hideous, with arms blown off, legs amputated, and faces scarred worse than fucking Freddy’s! Are we ugly? Of course! But our souls are so damn pure!"
"While those politicians, every one of them looking dapper, are actually, even the dirtiest shit expelled by the filthiest rats in the sewers of Miami isn’t as dirty as their souls!"
"Should old veterans who are ugly as sin just die? Fuck you! I want you to live!"
As Jeff finished this sentence, every veteran who wasn’t paralyzed in a wheelchair stood up, fiercely shouting and responding to Jeff’s words!
Indeed, only the true lower-ranked soldiers understood the plight of us old veterans! This young man named Jeff Raven, he’s one of our own! That’s right! We have served our country with loyalty, yet now the United States Congress refuses to allocate funds to improve our medical conditions!
"I’m a fool, and if I weren’t a fool, who the fuck would want to join the army and defend this country? Of course, I’m a fool, and so are all of you." Jeff exhaled slowly, his expression serious as he looked at the excited veterans sitting before him. He waited for the veterans to finish their cheers, roars, and venting before he continued:
"Jeff, you’re a fool. You can’t run for office. Your neighbors will say so, the newspapers will say so, my opponents will say so. They mock me. ’Jeff is a fool. He knows nothing. His joining the election is a joke. Go home, America doesn’t need you now. You’re better off going back home and continuing to fix those goddamn filthy pipes!’ You’re a fool; fools don’t understand politics, situations, economics, revolution, campaigning..."
"Fuck you! Fools may know nothing, but they do know how to love this country!" Jeff suddenly roared, his voice breaking with intensity!
The person in charge saw that the four or five dozen old men in the audience seemed to have fallen into some kind of frenzy, too absorbed to continue chatting with Tommy, and quickly walked over to gesture to the caretakers to calm down some of the particularly overexcited old fellows. God forbid their hearts give out from the overwhelming emotions, and they die then and there.
This was a scene that this nursing home had never experienced before. A retired senior airman had such powerful influence? It made these old soldiers look like they could stand up and return to the battlefield at any moment?
While the person in charge failed to understand why the veterans were so agitated, Jeff looked over the heads of the audience at Martin, who was making relaxing gestures at him, signaling him to slow down. Jeff complied, lowering his voice, and in a calm tone reminiscent of their rehearsals, began to speak: "This is what my father used to say. He was a fool too, a fool named Harley Raven, who served in the Second Battalion of the Third Infantry Brigade of the First Infantry Division of the United States Army. His nickname was ’Can Opener,’ because whenever he was around, he could make his buddies crack open their mouths and laugh joyfully, like a bunch of opened cans."
