a reply to:
~Lucidity
Sorry I'm posting on cell. It appears to have captured the Mobil url. Here is the verbiage, -
My name is Jon Ritzheimer and this is my story. I was born and raised in east county San Diego in a town called Lakeside. I was fortunate enough to
have some of the same friends from kindergarten through high school. My mother was a single, hard working mom, who got little to no appreciation at
times from me and my sister growing up; yet she always did the best she could out of pure love for us. Nearly everyday, my mother would drop me off at
school and while driving away she would roll down the window and shout ‘Make an impression on someone’s life today’, embarrassing me in front of
my friends. I think it’s safe to say that those words are coming around to bite her in the butt now.
I graduated high school and had little to no direction in life. So I decided to join the Marine Corps. It was the first door I walked into at the
recruiter station and I was sold. I joined in 2003 and the invasion of Iraq kicked off while I was in boot camp. I knew I was going to be sent but I
didn’t know when. Finally in 2004 my unit was called to serve. We were sent to a nasty little town called Ar Ramadi and it had such a poor vantage
point, because our base sat at a lower elevation than the city, allowing snipers and mortar spotters to observe our every move. We were tasked with
convoy security and drove over 30,000 miles in a seven-month period. We were hit with multiple IEDs and attacked almost every day. I came home and
tried to get on with life like others from my unit but found it hard. I had a newfound sense of pride for my country and a dying thirst to better
fulfill my destiny. I went to Iraq again in 2008 and lived out of an MRAP for 5 months without a shower. We were not shot at even once during the time
we lived outside the wire. After returning from this deployment I decided to use my 9-11 GI bill and attended Grossmont College.
I studied Communication and Religion. After I graduated I asked “Now What?” Since I still had some benefits left I went to Motorcycle Mechanics
Institute and graduated there with a 4.0 and 100% attendance rate. My wife is still pissed at me for that because I missed the birth of my second
daughter by one hour due to school not letting me off in time. While in Phoenix I saw that the cost of living was affordable and we could raise our
daughters in a nice neighborhood rather than in the ghetto of San Diego because that’s all we could afford. We bought our first house in Phoenix and
life went on like normal. But as many vets know, life is really never normal for us again after returning from war.
While I was in Phoenix I was also still in the Marine Corps Reserve and transferred to a unit called ANGLICO. I did this because I was still in good
shape and wanted to find a more high-speed job that would feel more fulfilling. Before I transferred to the unit though, I was given an adverse report
for talking bad about the current administration on social media. I agreed to pull the posts and they agreed to follow through with my promotion to
Staff Sergeant. When I arrived at 6th ANGLICO I was met by a SGTMAJ who was an avid supporter of the current administration and let me know he would
find something to drive me out, which he did. I had a few new tattoos on my arms that did not fall within the new Marine Corps tattoo policy and I was
not allowed to reenlist, but I was still given an honorable discharge that I earned with ten years of faithful service.
Now I’ll get into who I am in life now. I will forever be a Patriot and an Oath Keeper given my background. Now that I have brought children into
this world I fear for their future. I can honestly say that if not for my children, I would probably be among the 22 Vets a day that decides to take
his or her life to escape this hell. But now I need to do whatever I can to ensure a better future for them.
On May 4th,2015 I saw that two gunmen tried to kill innocent Americans because of a cartoon contest. The news reported that the gunmen were from
Phoenix, so I decided to go down to where they lived and peacefully protest outside there apartment complex alone. While I was there, two Muslims who
said that they were friends with the shooters came to intimidate me because of my shirt that read ‘F*CK ISLAM’. One of them threatened me while
walking away and told me I could expect a drive by to put me down. So I called some fellow Marines to watch my 6. After that we decided that it
couldn’t stop here and we had to take it to the doorsteps of the mosque that harbored these terrorist. We held our first Freedom of Speech Rally on
May 17th 2015 and it went well. But the people were not satisfied and felt their message wasn’t heard. That led us to create the Freedom of Speech
Rally Round II. This time the mainstream media caught wind of it and portrayed it as an Anti Islam Rally and said that ‘Armed Bikers’ were going
there to harass innocent Muslims. That simply was not the truth though. People who attended brought a side arm purely for protection from the
much-anticipated attack.
However, not one shot was fired. Not one fight broke out. And not one arrest was made. It was a perfect, peaceful protest and everyone went home that
night feeling like they got something off of their chest. I was still under fire from the anti-protesters. My Facebook was hacked numerous times. A
fake Gofundme account was set up to make it look like I was asking for $10,000,000.00 and further gave the media more ammunition to slander my name.
My social security number and all of my credit cards were exposed and posted on multiple websites and my family was forced into hiding considering all
the threats that were made. My life has been shattered and I am being dropped to my knees asking for guidance and support. My message was peaceful
from the start and if I truly wanted more bloodshed I could have easily had it that night. But as A Marine who has been to war, I assure you that I
only want peace. Islam claims to have the same intentions but only peace through submission. The spartan in me won’t let that happen!" -Jon
Ritzheimer, United States Marine Corps.