Let me make it clear from the outset that I am not a fan of the glorification of war and people’s excusing their support of sending young people to fight old people’s wars by waving flags, saying they support the troops, clapping for random soldiers on airplanes, or the formulaic thanking of veterans for their service, only being able to do that because they were not one of the ones who died for no real justifiable reason.
Slap all the patriotic goo-gahs up that you bought at the discount store where it all came from China, outdo your neighbors in flags, and claim the latest war is to make America safe, but when all is said and done some young person is going to die for no truly justifiable reason, and we will all be happy that some bridge bears a name that no one will know or care about in less than a generation.
But some young person has died, and for what?
Oh, we will say he or she will live in the minds and hearts of all Americans, but let’s be real. More people will know that person and remember that person if he or she were our neighbor who has kids and grand kids, a person with whom we work and socialize.
I taught school so that kids could have the chance at a good future. I watched all the splashy ads about joining the volunteer army, but noticed when the numbers were high enough someone found an excuse to use all the troops to fight some concocted war for some corporation’s gain.
They had the troops, so they used them.
The futures I was laying the ground work for were not to be for some kids who would have been great for the rest of us if they had been allowed to use their potential, their art, their skills and their talent.
But, no. They have their name on a little sign on a small triangle in some intersection somewhere that is supposed to make it okay even if motorists never notice the sign.
Now, people may find this opinion of mine to be so totally wrong as to be un-American.
But, getting that off my chest, let me point out an example of the phoniness of this pro-troop trope.
Transgender men and women have been fighting for this country from day-one. It was only recently that those who gave their time and potentially their lives for all that allows us to bray our patriotic bombast have been allowed to remove the extra pressure on themselves by being able to serve as the person they are.
Then along comes a multi-deferment draft dodger who decides that he needs to exercise power and shore up his base by sacrificing transgender soldiers as if they are toys in his badly played game of look-at-me-I-am-more-American-than-you-are to help him potentially survive the revelation that he sold the country out.
But he knows his base, and he knows veterans will turn on each other for him.
There is a town next to Oklahoma City, Warr Acres, that has a very highly conservative bent to it. It is the epicenter of the Buckle of the Bible Belt and contains more born again evangelical extremists than any one place should be allowed to have.
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Recently their American legion post that should support all troops regardless of what war, what level of service, or what personal characteristics any individual veteran may have, abandoned the bond of the Vet and put an anti-transgender soldier message on its building’s marquee soon after trump issued his tweet about a ban on transgender troops.
The mission statement for the American legion claims,
“The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, committed to mentoring youth and sponsorship of wholesome programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow service members and veterans.”
They turned their backs on those who served and are still serving in favor of a multiple draft dodger.
Apparently they have decided that draft dodgers deserve more respect and loyalty than people in uniform.
Someone needs to explain this to me.
Regardless that returning troops came through military bases, not public airports, during the Viet Nam Conflict, the stories of their being spit on as they deplaned have persisted as an example of disrespect for those that served. It was and is, if true, unacceptable. However, it is apparently okay now to spit on troops in service by the American Legion because a draft dodger has decided he knows what military service is all about.
After a day of social media attention, calls to the post, calls to the media, and calls to various political people, quietly that sign came down.
People calling the post were told that they had the wrong Legion post, which they didn’t, or that that post was unaware of what was on the sign or who put it there.
How does an organization that claims that it has continued “devotion to our fellow service members and veterans” decide to put something on its marquee that denigrates those in service?
Certainly someone must have questioned the appropriateness of putting the letters on the marquee. Bad enough if any objections were overruled, worse if none were voiced.
It’s cowardly enough to disavow any knowledge of what was there.
Some of those service members they denigrated may be former students whose potential will never be realized because of their service to the country.
Perhaps if the president physically spits on veterans it will become acceptable. We have seen that his figurative spitting has been. accepted.