An American soldier of World War II who was commemorating his 100th birthday started crying as he talked about the situation of the nation.
Veteran of the Tampa Bay area Carl Spurlin Dekel reflected on his experience in the Marines and claimed that while participating in the war was his greatest pride, the lives of the fallen warriors had not been sacrificed for the America of today.
Dekel told Fox13 that “people don’t recognize what they have.”
“Everything we did, everything we fought for, everything the boys gave their lives for—all it’s been for nothing.” Our nation is headed in the wrong direction.
Dekel broke down in tears as he discussed the differences between the America he knew growing up and the one we live in today.
During an interview to honor Dekel’s 100th birthday, which the Silver-medal winner celebrated with friends and family, he made the comments.
Dekel claimed to have lived a good life and made a suggestion that the cause of his longevity and good health was his appreciation of the simple things.
“I genuinely believe that everything in the world is lovely. I mean, it’s wonderful if I get up in the morning and see all of these plants, all of those flowers, and the green grass on the ground,’ he said to Fox13.
Dekel displayed his numerous medals from his time in the Marines with pride. But when the battle veteran thought about the people he had lost, he started crying.
He declared, “We absolutely do not have the same country we have when I was raised.”
“Nobody will enjoy it as much as I did. Nobody else will get the chance I did. It simply isn’t the same. Furthermore, that was not the cause of our boys’ deaths.
It’s unclear what Dekel was referring to explicitly, but recent violence, mass shootings, rising prices, and overturns of important rulings by the US Supreme Court have all hurt morale in the nation.
A Gallup survey conducted in June found that a record-high 50% of Americans thought the moral standards in the United States were subpar.
Only 12% of respondents regarded the state of moral standards as “excellent,” and 78% claimed that American values are declining. Only 1% thought they were good.
It coincides with declining approval ratings for people holding the nation’s highest positions, such as President Joe Biden, whose rating fell to under 50% in May.