This post was inspired by Idzie and is part of my Act Like a Big Baby Day celebration, since today I don't have to be politically correct.
So, the topic is Veterans Day. Every year, this holiday inspires a messy stew of mixed feelings in me, and every year I bite my tongue. Not this year.
I don't have a problem with honoring our veterans. There are some veterans in my life whom I honor very much. However, I am at root a pacifist, and I find our twice-annual national recognition of this particular group of people a little distressing. My discomfort has nothing to do with their service; it doesn't matter to me how long they served, whether they served in peacetime or wartime or both, whether they lost friends or limbs or just a little time.
What bothers me is that they are the only group we honor, and I think that makes a terrible statement about what we value in this country.
Where is our holiday for honoring people who serve in other ways, the firefighters and cops and EMTs? These people face horrors daily, for decades, and they, too, lose comrades in arms.
Where is our holiday for honoring the peaceful people who protest our country's more outrageous acts? They, too, sacrifice time, money, comfort, safety, their freedom, and sometimes their lives.
Where is our holiday for honoring people who choose low-paying jobs in nursing, education, charity work, and so on, just because they care? They, too, set aside personal advantages and work for the common good.
Twice a year our president (of either party) makes a speech thanking veterans for their service, and all the media outlets rush to cover it, and all our schoolchildren are forced to participate in assemblies, and many of us break out our flags and our gratitude for a few hours. And that's okay with me, it really is (well, except for the forcing part). I wouldn't want to live in the world we'd have if not for the people who fought in most of our past wars. I don't really want to find out what the world would be like if we got rid of our armed forces (intriguing idea though it is).
But neither do I want to define patriotism as carrying a weapon or dropping a bomb. We can do better than that! I can do better than that:
Patriotism is loving your country enough to take action.
Period.
Here are a dozen patriotic 'veterans' I am honoring today:
Daniel Shays
Sojourner Truth
William Lloyd Garrison
Elizabeth Blackwell
Alice Paul
Edward R. Murrow
Howard Zinn
John Taylor Gatto
Allison Krause
Crystal Lee Jordan
Michael J. Fox
will.i.am
Mojo Brew bio
8 months ago
10 comments:
Thanks for putting into words something that has been niggling at me for many years now. We only have this once a year but, I think, we do lay on the guilt regarding the wearing of the poppy to a much greater extent.
What a wonderful post. I agree that we should all honor each other more in this country, for whatever we do that is honorable.
I wish we would go back to calling it "Armistice Day" and focus on the meaning of a laying down of arms. A move toward peace and away from war.
And I do feel it is important to honor veterans of wars, not to glorify war but to honor the unique sacrifices of men and women in service.
But I get your point too. :)
Thank you for this post. It resonates with me...
I have felt the same way for years too. I get particularly raised neck hairs when the veteran communities express shock at things such as the local rec centre continuing with their classes and programs on Remembrance Day, being disrespectful of soldiers who served....etc etc. I resent the poppy we use as a symbol in a "you can't make me wear that" kind of way...avoiding the cadets and young people trying to raise money to support the veterans, but in this guilt- inducing kind of way.... thanks for putting your thoughts out there, and I once again agree with your thoughts...and am happy to read them :0
Now if the rec centre continues their programs on next year's learn nothing day, then I'll be really ticked off! lol
Ronnie, yes. It's galling. But also, how do people work around the fact that the military's actions are most often not honorable, but despicable? I just can't get past the feeling that veteran's day isn't just or even mostly about honoring the bravery of individuals who have sacrificed themselves to protect and defend others, it's about the glorification of war.
This is a looong comment. I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately, since my dad's recent death.
I never felt guilted into honouring veterans. It was part of my life, as my dad served in the Second World War. Every Remembrance Day (held once a year on November 11th), he led the Navy troops around the Cenotaph in Ottawa, and we always went to see the ceremonies. I cry every time I watch it on tv, thinking about my dad. If I were living in Canada, I'd probably be wearing a poppy. It is originally from the tradition in Britain (where my dad was born), because poppies grew in the European fields of battle in WWI.
I don't think we can know what it feels like to serve in the armed forces in wartime. To have friends and comrades die next to you. To be away from your family, not knowing if you'd see them again. To believe you did what was right, but to have people not respect you for it, not even to observe a moment of silence for not only those who fought, but the civilians who died and mostly for the desire for peace. To still believe in "Never again" even though war continues to happen. It is the laying down of arms that the day marks from WWI - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Armistice Day, as sandy feet said.
Though my dad would never talk about it, the war took something from him that he could never get back.
But, just because it was a tradition in my family (which I didn't question) doesn't mean I might not think about it differently now. However, I know if I were to wear a poppy, it will be to honour my father and my grandfather (a submarine captain in the Royal Navy in WWI), my mother and grandmother, who had military wives' lives and all their wishes for peace. It won't be, and never was, for war itself.
Sandy - I think my main point is that there are *lots* of people who make unique sacrifices. By elevating military sacrifices in this way, we imply that we value them most, and that the sacrifices others have made aren't as powerful, life-changing, world-changing, and so on. I don't believe that, so I have a big problem with Veterans Day.
Robin, I see how your commemoration of this day is a deeply personal remembrance, and I hope it was clear in my post that I wouldn't want to interfere in that in any way. But I wish we also had a Peace Protesters Day, or we could combine them into an Agents of Change Day.
We went to the Seahawks game yesterday and discovered that it was Military Day (or something like that). They had a lot of veterans present and featured some Medal of Honor winners in the opening ceremony. They asked the veterans in the crowd to stand and "be recognized." I imagine this kind of thing happens in stadiums and other gathering places around this nation (and Canada) each and every year.
Well, I was sitting there next to my husband, who marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, who was arrested several times for exercising his rights to assemble and speak, who had dogs sicced on him and had cops pull guns on him, and who refused to sit down and be quiet until our country improved. The efforts he and his comrades made for our country are IMPORTANT; I wouldn't want to live in the nation we'd have now if not for what they did.
And yet no one has EVER asked him to stand so that we could express our appreciation for what he did.
It's not fair, and I don't think I can really join in this national honoring of our veterans until it is.
Actually, Peter, Paul, and Mary at that rainy concert we went to asked people in the audience to raise their hand if they'd lived the song "Have You Been to Jail for Justice?" (Then you're a friend of mine!)
So, I've been asked to raise my hand and been honored by PP&M singing to/for me!
I'd forgotten about that! It was a nice moment, and it does help a little. It's a drop in the bucket, but every drop counts. :-)
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