My thoughts and feelings on this Sunday when many churches honor the living and dead veterans of our wars are far too conflicted for me to write at length and coherently about the day of remembrance.
A few questions:
Do we remember the glory of war more than the horror of war?
Why, as a country, are we so lacking in care and compassion for many of the living veterans of all our wars? Why do our deeds not match up to our patriotic words?
Thank you, veterans.
It will always be difficult to think of war, those lost, those who survived, and it should be, difficult.
ReplyDeleteWhat glory? Winning? Whether it's hundreds or thousands or millions who die in any particular war, no one has won ... ended it, perhaps, but not won.
I do not mean this flippantly: take the letter L, standing for the word lie, out of glory and one gets to the truth of it ... gory ... war is gory ... and deadly, not just for the human body, but for the human spirit ... no one wants to admit that or think about it and most feel so helpless in the face of it that it is easy to forget the troops after the conflict, to pretend they were just doing any old job and any old benefits (or lack thereof) will do. It makes me furious every time I see an ad for the wounded warriors project - if "we" were truly committed to supporting vets properly, "we" would fund the VA properly as well as all the other post-service programs. But no, the against-big-government types want our vets to rely on charities to survive, on volunteers, not taxes, on other people to back up their words with actual cash and help and caring. Seems to me the most patriotic thing any of "us" can do is pay our taxes and demand proper support for those who fought our nation's wars, no matter how stupid and useless we think those wars may have been ... to leave no one behind, as at least one service promises. Oh, and those of you who shelter your wealth to avoid doing your part - you don't get to vote any more because you have failed a crucial test of citizenship, namely putting your money where your mouth is.
One set of statistics from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans:
Delete"Although flawless counts are impossible to come by – the transient nature of homeless populations presents a major difficulty – the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 62,619 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only 7% of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly 13% of the homeless adult population are veterans."