Turning in the thieves

Political lobbyists after my mother-in-law’s Social Security and Teacher Retirement money call themselves patriots, but they do not know what the word means. Not in the sense Mrs. R.’s family knows.

On 9 February 1776, Martin Johnston, Mrs. R.’s great-grandfather times five, enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Line. Johnston was eight days past his 18th birthday. Johnston served two years a private in the 3rd Virginia. He fought at the Battle of Princeton. He took his discharge at Valley Forge, Pa., and returned to Virginia, where he was in the militia. He died on 3 July 1820 in Kentucky. In her petition for widow’s pension in 1821, Sarah Wright Johnston stated that Johnston was in Morgan’s Rifles for a time and also was at the Battle of King’s Mountain.

On 21 September 1861, a son, a brother and a nephew of Mrs. R.’s great-great grandfather Zebulon Raley enlisted in an Arkansas company of what became the 40th Tennessee Infantry. Beloved Raley was 18; Williamson Raley was 40; and James Raley was 21. Forty-seven days later, Beloved Raley was dead from measles and pneumonia at Fort Johnson, Tenn. Williamson Raley died 10 March 1862 at No. 10 Island. James Raley died 6 June 1862 at Des Arc.

In 1862, H.H. Johnston, another of Mrs. R.’s great-great grandfathers, walked from near Fort Worth, Texas, to Little Rock, as a private in a Texas infantry regiment.

In April 1940, Mrs. R.’s brother Murray enlisted in Co. B, 153rd infantry. He was discharged a sergeant in late August 1945.

Mrs. R.’s husband, Lawson, entered Europe at a Normandy beach on 7 June 1944, as a soldier in Co. C, 509th Military Police Battalion.

Military service by itself does not make someone more a patriot than someone else. But, Mrs. R.’s ancestors, a brother and her husband put in many years and walked many miles in defense of this country. What would her Revolutionary War and Civil War families make of thieves who are trying to steal her money?

Mrs. R. is at an assisted living facility. She has Alzheimer’s and has been a prime target of political lobbyists who prey on the fears of elderly people.

On Tuesday, I will deliver to the attorney general’s office 65 complaints of consumer fraud against the thieving political lobbyists.