In all the noise, families of the fallen can’t be forgotten

Imight be one of the few people in America willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt that what he said last week to Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson — and what he probably meant — were two completely different things.

When you lack the chip, the capacity for empathy, such blundering is inevitable.

The wife and mother of Sgt. LaDavid Johnson, one of four Americans who died on Oct. 4 during an ambush in Niger, insist that the president’s call amounted to blame-shifting. The president denies this, saying they misunderstood what he said.

No one can judge a family in the throes of grief, not when they’ve just given what Lincoln described as the “last full measure of devotion.”

The controversy would never have arisen had the president not decided to bash his predecessors as an excuse for why he hadn’t contacted the four families. Easy-peasy

Early reports suggest that the attackers were affiliated with ISIS, which would help to explain the reticence. During the campaign, the president promised that, because he knew “more about ISIS than the generals,” he would dispatch ISIS in 30 days; easy-peasy.

Falsely claiming that previous presidents failed in their duty to comfort Gold Star families, and implying that the White House Military Office didn’t do its job is buck-passing at its worst, and adds to the critics’ contention that he lacks the capacity to shoulder blame and responsibility.

It’s an embarrassing coda to his bushleague treatment of the Khans, a Gold Star family, in 2016.

But in the midst of this latest squabble, we all are in danger of forgetting the people, the grieving wives, parents and children who must face a future that has been irreparably changed.

Johnson, who grew up in Miami Gardens, Florida, lost his mother as a boy. He met his wife, who is expecting their third child, when they were kids. He studied mechanical engineering and enlisted in 2013.

Staff Sgt. Bryan Black of Puyallup, Washington, was a chess prodigy who spoke three languages. He leaves a wife and two sons.

Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson of Springboro, Ohio, just south of Dayton, earned a dozen decorations and commendations. He, too, leaves behind a wife and two children.

Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright of Lyons, Georgia, was the latest in a long line of family who served since 1812.

Every American community has such willing people, including our own. They all deserve better than this latest imbroglio. The forgotten war

Over the decades, media has moved away from the warfront. Look at any front page on any given day, and you’d never know that we’re still fighting in Afghanistan, the longest conflict in American history.

Because most media have stopped covering it, the country has forgotten what it means to be in war.

We all need to see it, to be reminded of just what is being asked of the people who protect and defend us, and sometimes die doing it.

It’s easy for us move on, to equate their service with a plaque or highway sign, but a day doesn’t go by that the loss doesn’t haunt and hurt those left behind. In our dogged determination to be right, the bickering only freshens and deepens the wounds borne by Gold Star families.

Life lurches forward, and time obscures our collective memories. But the faces, the laughter, the love of the fallen, is undiminished in the hearts of those left behind. It is possible that, in his clumsy delivery, after borrowing something he likely heard from someone else, the president was trying to commend Sgt. Johnson for understanding the risks involved, for understanding that he could be sent into harm’s way, for understanding there was a chance he might not return. Yet, like so many others before him, Johnson was willing to undertake those risks for the love of country.

In the end, LaDavid Johnson, Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson and Dustin Wright did come home. Just not the way we wanted. Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com