Happy Veterans Day!!!

So, I've just ended a conversation with two colleagues that may have also ended our collegial friendship. It was over Veteran's Day and I took exception to the trite statements of a veteran about honoring all those veterans who have preserved and are now preserving our way of life. I don't know what bugs me most about this sort of patriotic and nationalistic claptrap, that it is so prevalent or that people who I think should know better and have very capable intellects spout these bumper-sticker statements as Gospel.

Besides ignoring the history of this country's military endeavors and the current situation we find ourselves in the Middle East, it seems that Reason has been the biggest victim of our military mindset in this country. Since Facebook postings don't encourage lengthy rhetoric I sent an email elaborating my background and my opinions based on sound reasoning (if I do say so myself) and facts. Essentially, my point in response to my colleagues' banal statements had been that I honored veterans mainly because they are the people who pay the biggest price for their socio-economic station in life. Our wars and police actions and interventions are fought in large part by the most economically disadvantaged citizens of this country. I also expressed that it was a shame that we have to honor so many for their sacrifices of limb and life. Well...you would have thought by the reaction I received that I had done the equivalent of spitting on The Baby Jesus.

Of course, not everyone has entered military service for economic reasons. I'm sure there are those who enlisted for sound philisophical reasons, some in search of a fix for their violent tendencies, some to bolst their ego, some to fulfill familial expectations, some to play with really great equipment, some for patriotic or nationalistic reasons, some to be taken care of, some to escape and some to 'straigten themselves out'. Mostly though, our current all-volunteer military is based on an economic exchange. My own desire to apply for admittance to a military academy was first for a free education, second for the boost it would give me for a future career and somewhere further down the list were unformed and uneducated sentiments regarding Duty, Honor and Country. Although Honor was more solid and easier to grasp when I was 18 then the others.

If you are a veteran, ask yourself, did you get your Bachelors degree before or after you enlisted in the military? It is a very pertinent question and if you think about it, you'll understand why.

I think very few want to admit that there were economic reasons for their enlistment. Once inside I'm sure it is much easier to believe that your role as a soldier is heroic and moral and right and Christian then it would be to accept that one has enlisted due to a lack of life options, perceived or otherwise.

None of my rhetoric made any impression on my colleagues. One thought that through my explanation I was attempting to apologize and that it was "lame". I had to assure him that I most certainly was not apologizing. The other wanted me to come to an American Legion meeting with him to meet all the moral and outstanding veterans to give me a better perspective. I had to inform him that I come from a long line of service men tracing back to the American Revolution. The real kicker was the sentiment that because I wasn't changing my mind and agreeing to an argument devoid of reason and logic that the "conversation isn't going anywhere."

Looks like I'm going to be unfriended (Yep, that's an official word now. The latest to be added to the English Lexicon. Look it up.).