Recently County 10 published a negative and misleading opinion piece by Kevin Wilson essentially accusing me and Taylor Jacobs of being anti-veteran. Let me set the record straight. Wilson details his family’s service in our nation’s armed forces to give his statements credibility. I will do the same.
I am a veteran of the U.S. Army. My grandfather was a veteran, my father is a veteran, my three older brothers are veterans, my little sister is a veteran, my brother-in-law is a veteran, two of my daughters are veterans, my son-in-law is a veteran, I have several nieces and nephews who are veterans. Good luck finding a family in Lander with more military service than mine.
To my knowledge, there is currently one student attending school in Fremont County School District #1 (Lander) that is a veteran. Any guesses who that might be? My daughter. She completed Army basic training last summer and is now finishing her senior year of high school (split enlistment). She is going to be an Army combat medic. I am incredibly proud of her.
There is one member of our school board who is a veteran. Scott Jensen.
There is one candidate running for school board who is a veteran. Scott Jensen.
Mr. Wilson claims that I “use veterans as pawns to play the game of politics.” This is a very ironic accusation since that is exactly what he is doing. He is either ignorant or purposely deceptive when he claims we have repeated the “stain” of miss-treating veterans as happened after the Vietnam War. There is, of course, federal law that protects veterans in their employment. Although no such law is needed in Lander.
Anyone who knows anything about our schools knows that we honor and revere veterans. Please attend our Veterans day assembly next month to see for yourself. We employ many veterans, we have a military science class in the high school taught by a veteran. Veterans are not discriminated against in our schools.
If Mr. Wilson were a student of history, like he claims, he would know that the type of people who mistreated veterans during the Vietnam War era were not people like me or Taylor Jacobs.
The policy change he complains about occurred over two years ago. The district’s non-discrimination policy was cleaned up so that it matched the federal and state definitions of protected classes. Our district has not discriminated against any veteran or anyone else in violation of the law.
Token statements written in a school board policy will not provide any more protection than already exists in state and federal law. We do not need more division in our community, we need more unity.
I have sworn an oath to the Constitution many times. It is an oath I take seriously, which includes upholding the idea that “all people are protected equally by the law.” No veteran I know is looking for anything different than that.
Scott Jensen
Scott Jensen 