“VETERANS DAY”
I was
talking with a financial advisor on Friday about a possible investment, and he
said that he would get back to me today with some possible alternatives. I replied:
“But, that’s Veterans’ Day – will ya’ll be open?” He said:
“Yes, we will. I don’t like it,
but the stock market is now open on Veterans’ Day. It used to close, but some time ago, it
started being open on Veterans’ Day, so we have to be open.” I thought to myself: “Wow, I knew that capitalism reigned, but I
did not realize how complete its victory is.
The markets in America not even closing on Veterans Day, which we say
that we revere so much.”
I have a
very complex relationship with Veterans’ Day.
My mother’s almost-fiance was killed fighting in World War II, and my
father, whom I never knew, was a World War II veteran also. Though we never talked about it, I’m guessing
that my mother married my father on the rebound on Christmas Day, 1945. I was born 11 months later in November (yes, I
counted the months in my previous puritanical days). And, of course, without
that rebound, I would not exist! I
recognize and honor the many sacrifices that veterans and their families have
made over the centuries for all of us. I
don’t believe that slavery would have ever ended in the South without the Civil
War, and I recognize that Hitler’s march across Europe, and his rampant racism,
was stopped by veterans of ours and many other countries. So, on
this Veterans’ Day, I remember the likelihood of war and give thanks for those
who seek to preserve peace and freedom (if not equality).
Yet, in
talking about World War II, the complexity begins to enter. Hitler was created by the vengeful and shabby
treatment of the Germans after World War I.
So, by the time that Hitler got rolling, war was likely a necessity, but
what if Hitler had never gotten rolling?
Millions of people were killed in World War II – could they have been
spared by a better peace at the end of World War I? That complexity continues to roll through
American history also, as our military veterans have often been used to subdue
and oppress Native Americans on the land, have been used to
enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, have been used to slaughter
African-Americans, as they were in my home county in Arkansas in the Elaine
Massacre. Our friend and favorite songwriter Robin Williams penned in an early
song entitled “Adam Rude” a powerful lesson in this history. It was about an agent on the Indian
reservation in the late 1800’s, an agent who was corrupt and stole property and
land from the Native Americans:
“The Army promised shelter, the Army promised food,
But the Indians don’t get neither on account of Adam Rude
With their families slowly dying, brave warriors they do
grieve,
And then they paint their faces and raise their lances
bright,
It’s me the lowly private who’ll have to risk my life.”
And then
there is my own personal history with Veterans’ Day. In 1970 I decided to withdraw from seminary
and to challenge the automatic exemption from the draft that ministers and
seminary students had. I was among a
group of people who felt that if we could challenge the draft-exempt status of
church-related folks, then we could deepen resistance to the Vietnam War. The draft board in Helena was glad that I had
offered up my body to the sacrifice of the Cold War. I was faced with three choices (other than
going into the army): become a conscientious
objector, go to Canada, or go to jail. I
felt like the CO was an educated person’s draft exemption, but the other two
options did not seem feasible. I
actually loved my country, but I felt that the Vietnam War was not an honorable
cause for our country. After several
months of wrestling (and after being AWOL for the army physical), I decided to
seek conscientious objector status. I
was approved for that, and I worked at Opportunity House in Nashville as my
alternate service, which the CO required.
Opportunity House was a halfway house for men getting out of prison, and
I learned a lot there about the injustices of the prison system in the USA – I
learned a lot about myself, too!
So, on this
Veterans’ Day, I give thanks for those who have served in the Armed Forces, but
I also recall that we often use our military for unjust purposes, so that gives
me great pause. Especially in these days
when we have an unstable person as President, it especially gives me
pause. It’s complicated.
I read your blog re 'Veteran's Day' with interest.
ReplyDeleteMy father and the rest of us were born into the Church of the Brethern in Pennsylvania. For every war and armed conflict up to WWII, that church refused to allow any of its young men to serve in the armed services under any other status that concientious objector (C.O.). After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the church changed its view on C.O. and allowed its men to join and fight.
Well, my father did and was in the 3rd wave at Normandy (about day 6 or 7), earned a bronze star and a purple heart (being nearly killed by a piece of shrapnel from a shell that killed the young man who had relieved my father from guard duty ten minutes sooner than necessary). He fought all the way to Germany and was at times as close as 30 yards from an advancing enemy. I still get shivers re this.
I always found the role national necessity played in our church's discernment of its moral stance re war interesting. I realize that at the time this decision was made, the Japanese all but owned the Pacific theater and Nazi Germany most of Europe. Had the U.S. not become unified to fight more or less over night, who knows what kind of world we would live in today. While I was always proud of my father's service, I never thought Vietnam was a righteous conflict and believe it easily could have been avoided.
Jan Heckler
I am a Veteran-USA-Army. People thank me for my service, I feel uneasy about being thanked.
ReplyDeleteI served during peace time 1975-1978. I need to be thankful to God and the US Arm Forces for giving me the opportunity to study and travel during my tour of duty. As a new alone immigrant living in NY city without a support of family or friends, l could have ended taken a wrong path. I was lucky to find a place where different opportunities were available to learn. I took advantage to improve my life, physically and mentally. I became an educator, a world traveler a person who believes on herself and ready to serve others.
In Germany, every male must serve their country, but their training is not to sent you to war, but to educated you to survive, mental and physical fitness are at heand.
On November 11, Veteran's Day l thank to those who were sent to war for their courage and beliefs. Personally, l thank to the Arm Forces for have giving me the opportunity to be a person that l am now. Wars don't creates healthy opportunities, create pain and suffering unnecessarily to young people to have a wonderful life.
This comment is written by David Billings:
ReplyDeleteMy father was awarded the purple heart during his service in WWII. He was hit by a bomb fragment in the chin and survived chin and all. I remember choking up at his funeral when the 21 gun salute was fired and when the U.S. flag was presented to my older sister before he was lowered into the ground. I have often thought, as I have grown older, about the sacrifices people like my father made that allowed me to live a much different life than he and others like him lived. I felt ashamed sometimes that my risks were so much safer than the ones he took.
In the first two decades after WWII the south was ablaze with racial violence. In fact my Uncle Harry (also a veteran) was murdered in McComb, Mississippi in 1962. The murderer was a young Black man. Uncle Harry was a white man from a working class but well-known
white family (largely because all the Billings worked for the railroad and because there were so many of us--7 brothers and 2 sisters.) Now 6 brothers survived. Within hours the representives of the KKK came to the house. They wore no sheets or masks. Everybody knew everbody else. "What would you have us do?" was their question. Those who were home gathered in a circle and each was given the chance to respond.
No one did until it was my Uncle James' turn to speak. James was a decorated war hero. He had seen death up close and personal. War was not yet a video game. You looked your advesaries in the face so to speak. He replied, "We don't want you to do nothing." "We are not that kind of family."
I credit that statement from my war hero Uncle with giving me permission to fight white supremacy which I have attempted to do in my life -- like my father's family had fought Hitler. Free of Hitler, I was now free to fight my own battles. Salute.
David Billings