The white male supremacy movement must be stopped
To the editor:
Today, the white male supremacy movement is focused on creating a dystopian future in which white women are pressured to forego a career, find a husband, and have lots of white babies.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is supporting the white male dominant future by widespread curtailment of the military service of women and people of color. Fifty percent of the dozens of senior military personnel Hegseth has fired, sidelined, or pulled from promotion lists are women or people of color. He blocked at least a dozen female and minority officers from promotions, eliminating four Army colonels-two Black men and two women-from one-star general promotion lists. In addition, he blocked five female Naval officers from two-star admiral positions. Notably, this included Rear Admiral Amy Baueernschmidt, the first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Hegseth is now requiring all military males to test their testosterone levels, and to artificially enhance their level if it is “too low.”
Pete Hegseth is totally unqualified to lead the Department of Defense and has no experience running a large institution. He did serve four years on active duty in the Army including two years in a combat zone. But most of Hegseth’s military experience was in a civilian National Guard status when he was actually a full-time conservative political advocate and television “personality.”
A policy of white supremacy is also being supported by the Trump administrations’ arrest and detainment of thousands of non-white individuals, who are being described, falsely in most instances, as criminals – the “worst of the worst.” The truth is, however, that 60 to 75% of those detained by Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol agents have no criminal history. Nonetheless, they are being arrested by masked agents in unmarked cars and sent to very poorly run and often cruel and unsanitary, detention centers around the country.
The harmful impact of the Trump administration’s war against women and nonwhites stretches far beyond our borders. International medical and food aid, which focuses on helping women keep their children alive, has been slashed. As a result, many non-white women and girls, and their children, in economically poor countries, are dying.
I served 20 years in the United States Army. During that time, I worked with many women and members of racial minorities. I found the vast majority of them to be intelligent, fair, hardworking, tough and reliable leaders.
Under Trump and Hegseth, the United States is losing the knowledge, experience, and expertise of large numbers of women and non-white soldiers, including long-serving officers at all levels.
Please call or write to your Congressional Representative and Senators and urge them to push back on the white male supremacy movement that our federal government is forcing on our country.
Please stress that all races and sexes deserve an equal opportunity in all careers, including in the U.S. military, and that the gross mistreatment of people who are being detained for possible violations of immigration law must stop!
Ken Peterson
MAJ U.S. Army (Ret.)
Punta Gorda