When the Brave Are in Mourning

by Starr Pilmore

Today, I met a Vietnam veteran. A man who served this country, endured its horrors, and carried its wounds. But it wasn’t war stories he wanted to share.  It was grief.

He wasn’t wearing a uniform. He wasn’t waving a flag. He had a simple bumper sticker that said: “No, I am not MAGA. I have a brain.”

He’s heartbroken. Not over the past, but over the present.

He told me how he’s watching the world unravel into something cruel and unrecognizable. He spoke what he is witnessing. The loss of kindness, the disintegration of decency, and the suffocating division that makes people forget how to be human.

And now, he’s withdrawing. Not because he doesn’t care. It is because he cares too much.He’s exhausted by the hate. He’s drowning in disappointment. He’s grieving a world he fought to protect, and he no longer recognizes.

He is not alone.

We are witnessing a quiet wave of grief and hopelessness rippling through the people who’ve given everything. Veterans, elders, caregivers, truth-teller. So many of us are mourning not just what’s been lost, but what’s being allowed to happen.

This post isn’t here to offer tidy solutions. It’s here to say:
We see you!You’re not alone!Your grief is valid!Your voice still matters.
If we lose the people who’ve fought hardest for compassion, What do we have left?

So today, we honor that Vietnam vet. And every soul like him.We will carry the light when others can’t.We will keep speaking truth, demanding dignity, and holding onto hope.

Because even when the brave are in mourning—they still deserve a world worth living in.

And we’re not done fighting for it.

💔🔥  #SoDoneWithThis  💔🔥

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