Today’s is a gimmee. Today, I am grateful for our veterans. I am also grateful for the wisdom of those who came before us in preferring not to create a separate warrior-class. The people who are willing to, if need be, sacrifice their lives for the country, are from the common population. That’s as it should be. Bad things happen when the military comes to be seen as distinct from and better than the rest of the population. That’s when military dictatorships of one form or another start cropping up.
As we honor the men and women of the military, let’s be thankful that they share our strengths and our failings; and recognize that, should the day come when we do not perceive them as ordinary people choosing (or, at times, compelled) to perform extraordinary tasks, our democracy will be at risk.
Good post, Doug. Today I honor my dad, my three uncles that served my great-great grandfather that fought for the Union in the Civil war, and my first American ancestor who was a stone mason for Washington’s Continental army.
Many people comment that Veteran’s day is not recognized by the same number of Americans as in the past generations. I think there is a reason for that, however. Far fewer Americans have been callled to serve in wars in the past 50 years or so. And far fewer have died in such wars. So there are many American families that have no veterans in their families and in their circle of friends. That does not neccessarily excuse Americans from honoring veterans, but it might explain it.
And in a way, that may be a good thing, because the nation has not lost nearly as many lives in the last 50 years as it did in the prior 150 years.
Finally, no matter what else we think of the state affairs of the country, every time elected political offices change hands (Civil War aside), it is done peacefully and without bloodshed. That is a great thing.
One more thing. This is a clip from my blog on Veterans day in 2008.
Try and catch the film the Best Years of Our Lives if you can.
VETERANS GAVE US THE “BEST YEARS OF THEIR LIVES”.
But this Veterans Day the Author did something a bit different. He went to the movies. But not just any movie. It was the Oscar-winning film from 1946 “The Best Years of Our Lives.” The film was screened at the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque as part of a Veterans Day Film Series. Peter and Kief, owners of the Guild, deserve heartfelt thanks for selecting this film for a Veterans Day showing.
“The Best Years of Our Lives” is the story of three veterans returning from World War II and their struggles to adjust. And the struggle of their families and friends to adjust to them.
The film is frank, yet sometimes funny. It is also poignant, and to a remarkable extent for Hollywood in 1946, unflinching. The film introduces three returning veterans. Al is a middle-aged sergeant who has a family and a solid career as a banker. Fred is a captain, a bombardier, and a decorated war hero. But with no experience in anything but bomb dropping, he can only find menial work when he returns. Homer is a sailor who lost his hands in the war. In a sense, Homer is the best-adjusted. The Navy has trained him to use his artificial hands very effectively. But Homer has issues with the way that others relate to him. Especially his fiancé.
The film also follows the lives of the women and family members. And peripheral issues also arise. Post war inflation and shortages of goods. The black market. Economic slowdown. Radical isolationist politics. Infidelity on the homefront. And the specter of a coming nuclear war.
Lots of stuff, and the film runs nearly three hours. But it is among the best of films from the “returning veteran” genre. The American Film Institute ranks it 37th of the best 100 American films. The direction, acting, art direction and cinematography are stellar. It deserves frequent viewing and consideration.
The men and women of the World War II generation are passing into history. Most of the actors from “The Best Years of Our Lives” are dead. The memory of that generation is fading from the collective memory.
Let us never forget. They gave us the Best Years of their Lives.
Doug, I hope you don’t see this as hijacking your thread, but I have thought about war and written about war in many blog posts. I was educated at a traditional “Peace Church” liberal arts college and was taught in the pacifist, peace and justice tradition. I laughed it off then, but I see the value in the teachings as I get older and watch young men and women come home from war disabled or in boxes. I will share a poem that I find very meaningful, from a a solder poet that died in the “War to End All Wars.”
TO THE VETERANS OF ALL WARS EVERYWHERE.
Dulce Et Decorum Est,
By Wilfred Owen (He was killed in combat about a week before WW I ended.)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!–An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.