Medal of Honor

If we cared for each other as much as Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe loved his soldiers, our society would be a better place.

Last week, President Joe Biden posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Cashe, making him the first Black service member since Vietnam to earn the nation’s highest honor.

It’s hard to comprehend Cashe’s courage, selflessness and grit the evening of Oct. 17, 2005.

Despite being slightly injured and dazed after a roadside bomb struck his armored vehicle and ignited its fuel cell, Cashe had the wherewithal to rush into the flames, not just once but multiple times, to pull his troops to safety.

In doing so, his fuel-soaked uniform caught fire, and he suffered second- and third-degree burns over almost 75 percent of his body. Despite his serious wounds, Cashe refused to board a medevac helicopter until after all his soldiers reached safety.

Ultimately, he saved six soldiers that day. Biden recounted the story of how, after arriving at Brooke Army Medical Center, Cashe’s attention stayed on his soldiers. When able to speak, he asked, “How are my boys?”

Cashe died from his injuries Nov. 8, 2005, at BAMC.

As the Defense Department eyes renaming its posts and bases named after Confederate generals — Bragg, Benning, Hood, Lee and so on — the Medal of Honor rolls are a good place to start.

Fort Cashe has a good ring to it.

Texas abortion law

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, may or may not know much about the Lone Star State’s vigilante heritage. Given his East Texas roots, he ought to at least be aware of the sordid history of the Klan and lynch mobs and citizen’s militias.

So, given our self-imposed ignorance about such ignominies, Hughes may have missed the connection between dangerous vigilantism and his now-notorious Senate Bill 8, legislation that allows private citizens — aka, bounty hunters — to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after about six weeks.

Like most inclined toward vigilantism, Hughes and those who support his tactic for outlawing abortion, are impatient sorts. They may espouse law and order, but for them the wheels of justice either grind too slowly or turn in the wrong direction. SB 8 is designed not only to practically outlaw abortion in Texas but also to circumvent legal challenges by relying on private citizens, rather than government officials, to enforce it.

Leave it to a slick Californian to call Hughes and friends on their blatantly unconstitutional hypocrisy. In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to allow the Texas abortion ban to stay in effect while legal challenges proceed, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his intention to push for a new state law modeled after SB 8.

Newsom’s law, however, would allow private citizens to sue anyone who “manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts” in California. The proposed law would allow bounty hunters to seek damages of at least $10,000 per violation, plus costs and attorney’s fees. Just like in Texas.

If enacted gun shops would surely be hurting. Just like abortion clinics in Texas.

Hughes claimed in a Texas Tribune story that Newsom’s proposal wouldn’t work because gun rights are “firmly established” in the constitution and abortion rights aren’t.

But that’s not what Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone indicated when Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked him if Texas’ citizen enforcement tool could be used to evade court oversight in targeting Second Amendment rights.

“Say everyone who sells an AR-15 is liable for a million dollars to any citizen. … Would that kind of law be exempt from pre-enforcement review in federal court?” Kavanaugh asked.

“Yes,” Stone replied.

Hughes’ anti-abortion law has been labeled “a stunt.” Unfortunately, it’s a stunt that is working, with the Supreme Court’s tacit blessing. The Golden State governor’s gun proposal is likely a stunt, as well. If it wakes up Americans — Democrats, Republicans, independents and enough Supreme Court justices — to the vigilante danger we face, his ploy will be worth it.