I get it, I really do, but I’m uncomfortable with it. That we should be grateful to those who rendered
us their service during wartime and, in some cases, forfeited their good health
and even their lives, is beyond debate.
For me, however, whether we really and truly demonstrate our
understanding of their experience with all of the patriotic public parading and
praying which we do on days like the third Monday in April, the fourth Monday
in May, the fourth of July and the eleventh of November is questionable.
Every year on the third Monday in April (April 15th
in 2013), especially throughout New England, we celebrate Patriots' Day. In some ways, that is the most legitimate celebration
of battlefield sacrifice in which we indulge. I am suggesting that because Patriots'
Day along with the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill if you insist) are the
only two battles not sanctioned by government, but simultaneously engaged in by
men and women determined to protect their own personal freedom. These two battles occurred more than a year before
the thirteen colonies established our national government.
The War of 1812 was essential for war hawks such as Henry
Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun of South
Carolina if young America was to be free of British harassment on the Great
Lakes, the Mississippi River and the high seas.
To New Englanders whose commerce depended on foreign trade, the view of
that war was very, very different indeed.
This was New Hampshire Congressman Daniel Webster’s response to a
proposal to create a national draft put forward by President James Madison and
his Secretary of War James Monroe:
“The administration
asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion...Is
this, sir, consistent, with the character of a free government? Is this civil
liberty? Is this the real character of our constitution? No sir, indeed, it is
not...Where in the Constitution is it written, in what article or section is it
contained that you may take children from their parents and parents from their
children and compel them to fight the battles
of any war in which the folly or wickedness of any government may engage
it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden which now comes forth for
the first time with a tremendous and baleful aspect to trample down and destroy
the dearest rights of personal liberty?”
Memorial Day, established to celebrate the sacrifices made during
the Civil War (particularly by the Union) came about as a result of the failure
of our founders to deal adequately with the moral issue of chattel slavery.
The Spanish-American War, World Wars I, II, Korea, Vietnam,
Gulf War I and Gulf War II, Iraq and Afghanistan were brought about due to the
economic greed and lack of diplomatic foresight and failures of our elected
leaders. (This was especially true of
the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. The latter was fought to realize our
“Manifest Destiny.”)
Some insist that the only legitimate reason for the
existence of government is to protect us from the aggression and oppression of
other governments. However, a mere
thumbnail view of history shows how seldom we’ve genuinely needed our national
government to protect us.
No one has ever suggested that Spain’s effort to maintain
Cuba as a colony was a threat to our ultimate safety. The blowing up of the USS
Maine, even if it actually was Spain’s doing as advertised, may have been in
defiance of our support for the Cuban rebels, but no one thinks that Washington
D.C. was ever in danger of being occupied by the King of Spain.
World War I, in the wake of imperial Germany’s proposal to
support Mexico’s regaining of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and
perhaps Colorado, may well have compelled our decision to fight the “war to end
all wars,” but even that is debatable.
As for World War II, America’s most popular war,
conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan asserts in his book Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War” that World War
II was only inevitable due to the follies engaged in by us and our allies during
and immediately after World
War I.
From the time we’re very young, we are almost indoctrinated
to be sympathetic to the idea of engaging in war.
Our national “hymns” with the notable exception of “America
the Beautiful" (which truly reflects the best of our land and culture)
invariably glorify war. To read the lyrics of much of our literature almost causes
one to believe that our freedom was born on the battlefield rather than in the
councils of men who had studied the writings of history’s great philosophers and
teachers including those of Christ.
Sadly, today President Obama will no doubt join with every
other President since FDR in paying tribute to the heroism of our
veterans. Bravery, courage, and
patriotism will be ascribed to those who achieved victory in war, rather than
being ascribed to those on all sides who were forced to endure war’s special hell. All that is good and moral once again will be
ascribed to the victor. Hence, the very
tragedy of that which has brought so much pain and loss to every veteran and
veteran’s family and their posterity will be virtually ignored.
So long as Veterans Day is about war, I’ll let others celebrate
it.
As for my gratitude, I’ll politically support all possible
activities that may alter the conditions that create war and that seek to heal
the wounds of war!
How about you?
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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