As I always do, I hung out my flag for Veterans Day. When I was young, the family flew the flag that had covered my great grandfather’s coffin, a Spanish-American War veteran. But somehow it went astray in the downsizing of my parents’ later years. It was a beautiful thing, crafted of heavy cloth with elegant stitching and undoubtedly made in America. Our current version does the job, but it is lightweight and made of some sort of weatherproof synthetic. It’s not quite the same.
Both my father and my wife’s uncle were veterans of the Pacific Theater in World War II. Her father was too young to serve before the war ended, but wore the uniform just after it concluded. Farther back we have our share of Civil War and Revolutionary vets marching through the family tree. I introduce these bona fides before offering a few curmudgeonly remarks about the current style of observance of this annual day.
When I was young, Veterans Day was not accompanied by so much hoopla. It was quietly and solemnly observed with an occasional parade but no multi-media extravaganzas or chest thumping. I think this may have been because memories of World War II were fresh and it was so vast that the father of almost every kind in school had served.
Being a veteran then was the norm and was respected, but drawing attention to your service was considered gauche. Those who had been closest to the action were the least likely to want to relive it, except among their peers. They were proud, but not anxious for the limelight. Their attitude to their service was rather like that of a fellow I remember from their generation who discovered a poisonous snake under the vacation cabin his family was renting. Finding it and killing it was his duty. He did it, and afterward felt no need to dwell on it.
I think today’s televised concerts, the constant soliciting of donations to support returning warriors, the ritual “thank you for your service” are signs of something subtly awry in the culture. For those who lose comrades in battle, survivors’ guilt is a common affliction. It sometimes seems to me the current celebrations of veterans by non-veterans smack of shirkers’ guilt.
Since there is no longer a draft but continue to be wars, service is left to a small minority of the population — those who go out of their way to do it. Some may serve for patriotic motives and a lot are essentially entering the family business, but in hard times many more may be seeking a paycheck and the promise of a route to a better life. The result is that the military has come to represent a tiny slice of the country and is skewed toward minorities and disadvantaged youths.
Meanwhile, the majority of us choose not to defend our country, except through the tax dollars we increasing begrudge. Aside from the morality of that decision it may have the practical effect of making us less cautious about which fights we get into than we would if our lives or those of our children were on the line. But, having outsourced service to our country, we may feel a little guilty about it. Our fathers and grandfathers wouldn’t have done that. Hence, the sometimes excessive flag-waving.
If we really want to thank our veterans for their service, we might start by doing all in our power to prevent our elected representatives, who like us are increasingly not veterans, from getting us embroiled in unnecessary, ill-conceived and ill-managed conflicts. Rep. Charlie Rangel, (D-NY), a decorated Korean War vet, has long advocated the return of the draft on the grounds that every citizen should serve his or her country and if every family was at risk we would be less likely to permit the country to engage in folly. It won’t happen, but the logic isn’t bad.
Beyond that, we ought to insist that the government keep faith with veterans by caring for them when they return. Not just the wounded ones, though surely their welfare is a national obligation. The fact that so much private fund-raising to help them cope with injuries and economic want is necessary means we have shirked that public obligation.
Surely we should also be keeping the implicit bargain made when young people volunteer to protect the rest of us. We ought to guarantee that they have access to programs to keep them healthy, become better educated and more successfully employed when they get back, to get a job and a home. If we aren’t willing to spend tax dollars for that, we oughtn’t to spend them for foreign wars in the first place.
The GI Bill and other benefits accorded veterans after World War II helped lift a generation raised in the Great Depression into a middle-class life. That didn’t just provide appropriate recompense for their service but remade the country for the better.
Instead of voting for candidates who will wave the flag but nickel and dime veterans, instead of pretending a few concerts or telethons will discharge our debt, it’s time to do the right thing by our veterans. They did the right thing when it was their turn.