MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
During the heat of the presidential campaign, a veterans group started holding public meetings, usually at brew pubs. The idea was make a space for a civil conversation across partisan lines. They called the events Pints and Patriotism. Well, the meetings went pretty well, but the need has not gone away, so the group is holding more. NPR's Quil Lawrence dropped in for a beer.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Outside Portland, Maine, about 60 people fill the bar at the Definitive Brewing Company. Most of them were veterans or family.
ALLISON JASLOW: Good evening, everyone. Oh, I'm sorry. That's really loud (laughter).
LAWRENCE: Allison Jaslow directs Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and she's co-hosting the event.
JASLOW: I was joking that veterans are the referees that America needs right now, too. I think it's helpful to have veterans in the room because we don't start a conversation with who cares more about America. It's just sort of assumed.
LAWRENCE: Her co-host is Jordan Wood, with a group called democracyFIRST. He lays out what he says are four nonpartisan rules to keep a democracy healthy.
JORDAN WOOD: They are the right to vote for eligible citizens, denouncing political violence against your opponents, stopping the spread of misinformation about our elections and accepting the outcome of elections and supporting the peaceful transfer of power.
LAWRENCE: So that's it. Then they just start passing the mic.
UNIDENTIFIED VETERAN #1: Oh, hi. I served '81 to '83, but my concern is directly to the point of how we can fight against the teardown of the VA.
LAWRENCE: There are comments about how to limit cuts in VA care - and most of the crowd has a pretty good opinion of VA care - and a question about the number of female military leaders getting fired.
UNIDENTIFIED VETERAN #2: And as a woman in the military, I'm curious about your thoughts on the recent backsliding in women in leadership roles.
LAWRENCE: Another topic that keeps coming up was the recent controversy about the secretary of defense sharing airstrike plans on the Signal app.
UNIDENTIFIED VETERAN #3: This is no laughing matter. This is no minor thing. I mean, it really infuriates me. Some enlisted guy screws up with a secret document - bye-bye.
JASLOW: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED VETERAN #3: You're gone.
LAWRENCE: Now, this crowd may be a bit self-selected. People who support the way things are going might not feel the need to come out and air their complaints. One man quietly leaves after asking his question or two. I caught up with him real quick outside.
CODY GILLIS: I heard enough (laughter). You know, I've got nothing but respect for the military.
LAWRENCE: His name is Cody Gillis. And he didn't serve, but his son is in the Navy. Gillis thinks the crowd was left-leaning. He wanted to discuss issues of antisemitism at colleges, the vandalism of Teslas. He thinks the media has overblown the leak of the airstrike details on Signal.
GILLIS: Signalgate - if you listen to something other than the legacy media, you'd know there was really - there was nothing. You say, oh, you know, it was war plans. It wasn't.
LAWRENCE: Gillis also says he thinks inside agitators helped ramp up the January 6 riots at the Capitol. Which brings us to a subject being discussed back in the bar - what is a fact, even, anymore?
JOEL LEHMAN: Joel Lehman here, and I served from '66 to '69.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Welcome home.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Thank you, sir.
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JASLOW: Yeah.
LAWRENCE: He's a Vietnam-era vet. He gets a round of applause off the bat. But this is his point.
LEHMAN: I see our country with two separate truths. I have Republican and Democrat friends that can't talk to each other.
LAWRENCE: And that strikes a chord with people. Some say they think the media wants society divided 'cause it's good for ratings. Some others suggest contacting Maine's members of Congress to keep vets' issues front of mind.
Another fellow takes the mic. He says democracy is messy, but there's always a chance to hold people accountable next election. Jeff Edelstein is his name. He's not a veteran, but he swears like one.
JEFF EDELSTEIN: But I don't know how many of you know the quote from Churchill. He said, democracy is the worst form of government, except for everything else that has been tried.
WOOD: Yeah.
JASLOW: Yeah.
EDELSTEIN: And so it - you know, it sucks. Democracy is tough, but it is the best [expletive] thing and it...
JASLOW: Yeah, I...
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JASLOW: I not only agree with you, I don't need Winston Churchill quotes to give me that hope.
WOOD: (Laughter).
JASLOW: I mean, rooms like this give me hope.
WOOD: Yeah.
LAWRENCE: That's Iraq veteran Allison Jaslow chiming in there, but her co-host of the event, Jordan Wood, has a last word or two.
WOOD: I would just add, though, that you...
JASLOW: (Laughter).
WOOD: We can't let democracy protect itself. It needs us to defend it, and it takes citizens to say, we want to preserve this. We want to stand up for it.
LAWRENCE: And despite the somber topics, just coming out and talking seems to have helped.
JASLOW: Thank you all for joining us this evening.
WOOD: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
JASLOW: This was awesome.
(APPLAUSE)
LAWRENCE: Quil Lawrence, NPR News, Portland, Maine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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