Veterans Day 2021

Angela G. Law

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This is Angie. I haven't ever written a blog article for our work but this week I had to. I hope you're not one who happened to read the Salt Lake Tribune, KSL and/or the Deseret News this past week but if you are I would love to share the actual story with you. Makes me so sad to know these papers could write lies to hurt and slander a person and pass it off as "journalism."

​Larry spoke at an elementary school for Veterans Day ​to over 1100 students, staff and parents.

I was also there and it was so fun to see how the kids love him! I took video clips through most of it until my phone was going to die! The intent of his presentation was clear--Mr Law, an Air Force veteran with 21 years of service, had fun sharing with the kiddos his love of country! In the last part of his presentation he shared about the serious oath that men and women take when they join the armed forces: "...to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." He talked about keeping us safe from "bullies" who would do us harm. He showed a slide with a picture of Hitler and taught how this bully killed millions of innocent people. He also showed a slide of four current bullies that are a threat to our freedom today. One bully he talked about was the leader of Communist China who currently has imprisoned and is carrying out the genocide on a group of people called the Uyghurs--a Chinese Muslim minority targeted by the Chinese Communist Party. 

Unfortunately, one parent posted on his/her social media and notified the news outlets that they felt marginalized and felt Larry made his presentation political about COVID and vaccines. This person asked to stay anonymous so we don't really know what they had a problem with. We are left only with what the papers reported (and we know they lied about Larry so maybe they lied about his/her complaint too), either way, we can assume this person made it clear they felt Larry crossed the line talking about Asian people with his teaching about World War II history and current events along with making it all too political. 

I'm saddened that if this person really felt this way they didn't take the opportunity to teach their children what a gift and a blessing it is for them to have Asian ancestors who no doubt are beautiful and wonderful people! It seems we used to do that in America; Teach our children instead of helping them to feel victimized. This parent could have shared the history of some of these bad people in our world who would do them and us harm but how blessed we are to have men and women in our military who are so brave, courageous and willing to protect us from bullies. Share with the child(ren) that this is why we honor ALL veterans on this Veterans Day so we don't forget that we live in a country that does not allow this type of bullying. And, to share how some bullies in the world may look like their own ancestors and some bad people look like Mr. Law's ancestors too but that doesn't make them or him a bad person. ​It was sad this person couldn't have come to Larry who would have made it clear that no matter what race, gender, heritage, religion or creed, he and countless others of all American ethnic groups have served this great nation to defend and protect our American rights, freedoms and values.

​The paper also discussed how Larry's presentation was political against COVID vaccines. We don't know how much she actually said about this although this parent is quoted in the articles as saying, "Mr Law made several references to fighting bullies, including COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and showed images of dictators of predominantly Asian descent as an example of what a bully looks like...It was just basically full of anti-Asian rhetoric talking about how people getting free handouts like food from grocery store is anti-American and for lazy people, the parent said...also claimed Law expressed his support for the Jan. 6 riot in Washington D.C." All of these accusations are completely untrue. These quotes were not his words. The reporters did a search on Larry's name. They found his blog and because his articles currently teach the truth (in his opinion) on the COVID-19 situation and the mandates for the mRNA vaccines they jumped at the chance to slander and lie that he said those things in the assembly. The journalist linked our blog as "proof" that what this parent complained about must have been the truth. Larry and I received vile, hateful comments on our blog. Calling us "white supremacists", "f-ing racists" and several other despicable things. Larry deleted the most sickening comments but left a few that were just "rude" but not over the top hateful. He responded to those.

The silver lining is we have had an outpouring of love, support and LOTS of letters sharing the truth of what they saw and heard at the assembly. I will include just one letter as this mom, (who we didn't know prior to the assembly and we didn't know she wrote this FB post until after the fact), seemed to capture what dozens of others have said in various ways. We have printed a lot of these letters and they now are housed in a file that is more than an inch thick. This person, I'll call her a mama-bear, made her post public on her FB timeline and she had 60 "shares" and many, many comments.  Here is the screenshot of her post so you too can read the truth. ​

As Larry's wife of nearly 43 years, I know the man that he is. While he certainly isn't perfect (I don't think any of us would say that we are!), I know he loves God, his country, his family and ALL people. I know those of you who know him understand this about him and would also want to defend his character. But, for those who do not know him, I wanted to include the truth of this situation. When we got a call from a local ABC news channel after many other news outlets and papers continued to perpetuate the lies, I supplied them with the truth of the assembly as told by lots of other people. The truth does not sell. No correction was made. No apology for the slander. This all goes to show you they are only interested in supporting their narrative--not being fair. 

Larry and I will just continue to do what we have always tried to do and that is to live so that no one will have any reason to believe what they might find in a negative newspaper article about us! ha!  

Blessings,
Angie