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Worthy of Double Honor |
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“Those were eight wasted years of my life son.” I cannot enumerate the times my Dad uttered this lament to me as a boy and young man. He was alluding to his four years in the Air Force and four years in the Army.
I was in the last class to receive a Draft lottery number for Vietnam. Unsolicited, my Mom assured me often she would help me find asylum in Canada if I didn’t want to go go war. Thankfully, Nixon called off the dogs and my number was too high to be drafted.
Hierarchy gives me gas. If someone tells me to stand at attention because he has more stripes on his sleeve than me, I am likely to tell him to kiss my ass. This is one trait my Dad and I have in common.
I could care less about titles and rank. I’m a Unitarian Universalist Minsiter. One time while wearing my robe at a wedding a proper British Catholic woman inquired, “what do I call you Father?” I quickly spit out, “Chuck.” She replied, “I’m not comfortable calling you by your first name.” Devilishly I answered, “Most people call me Father, but my friends call me Dad. You can call me Dad!” Recovering quickly from shock, she cackled with exuberant, irreverent glee. This is now one of my favorite lines to pull on the unsuspecting hierach.
I don’t care about guns or weapons of violence. I have never owned any. I am not a total Pacifist. I do believe in self defense. I’m not into the grand romance of war. I don’t go to war movies.
I don’t buy into the myth that “serving my country” equates to being in the military, dropping bombs and fighting wars. Surely, the Peace Corp or AmeriCorp is at least as valuable a service to our nation as being a soldier. I question the unassailable wisdom that we owe our freedoms to the armed forces. I will grant partial truth to this adage but it strikes me as more propaganda than proverb. Maybe I am a naive liberal.
Looking squarely in the mirror a good case can be made that the primary function of our military today is to support American economic dominance across the globe. Books like John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” are depressingly sobering.
Even if you poo poo Perkins you have to wonder, why do we need 761 military bases around the world?
Like most of you Veterans Day is just another holiday or a good time to catch a sale. I never attend parades on this day or utter a prayer on their behalf.
On the weekend before Veterans Day I was down in the famed Pier 39 area of San Francisco. I avoided eye contact with several vets begging for money on the streets. Abruptly, I was hit with a case of moral nausea.
Several years ago in preparing a sermon I was incensed to find that over 25% of homeless people in America are veterans.
On Veterans Day the San Francisco Chronicle published a front page story on the 2,000 homeless veterans living in the city, between a quarter and a third of the city’s total homeless population.
All across the country this morning there will be Veterans Day parades, fluttering flags and heartfelt speeches. We will tell our servicemen and women how much we appreciate their sacrifice, remind everyone that service to our country is the hallmark of democracy and lament the passing of those who sacrificed their lives.
Someone will play taps.
And James Holmes, who served in the 82nd Airborne from 1975 to 1978, will be waking up in an armchair at a shelter for homeless people.
“I spent the last four nights in a chair, one night on the ground in Golden Gate Park and two nights in a (shelter) bed,” he said.
St. Paul exhorts a young Minister that the elders of the church are “worthy of double honor.” By this he means they are due respect and to be taken care of financially.
Anyone who puts their body, soul, mind and strength at lifelong risk on behalf of us all is worthy of double honor. They are to be esteemed in word and deed beyond a red, white and blue calendar day. As of now the lofty ceremonies only highlight a national disgrace.
Whether the veteran was a willing participant in war or a pawn of the President it matters not. Whether the war was just it matters not. Whether the veteran is permanently disabled it matters not. Whether the veteran is an addict it matters not. Whether you are a hawk or a dove it matters not.
I call on President Obama to make a one sentence policy proclamation.
“During the Obama administration no American veteran will ever go without proper medical care or go homeless, period.”
Ah! has the ring of l.b.j.s war on poverty..lets call it the obama ‘GREAT SOCIETY’…wheres the money?..banks first bums last?.
Not a bad title! Wouldn’t be something to invert the usual economic “prosperity” equation? Would we be “richer” for truly honoring those who live with the scars of their service for a lifetime?
Soulfully,
Chuck
Chuck,
Very insightful and very necessary, I feel. Here’s an article on a certain group of veterans who have been denied benefits unjustly–namely, Filipino WWII veterans. I believe you’d be interested!
Check this link out:
http://www.dailybruin.com/news/2008/nov/14/filipino-veterans-us-armed- forces-deserve-benefits/
Thanks Joe. I will check out the article.
Soulfully,
Chuck
Too true!
“I question the unassailable wisdom that we owe our freedoms to the armed forces. ”
Then whom do we owe them to?
Well, if you believe America is great because of more than our military victories, then we owe it to our leaders (Martin Luther King, FDR, JFK) and our businessmen and our families etc…
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My dad didn’t quite go _that_ far, but he never recommended me to join the armed forces. He joined the Marines in 1942 to fight the Japanese. The Viet Nam war ended when I was 18.
There is no constitutional authority to conscript American citizens into the military, or to any civilian service. The thirteenth amendment prohibits involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime.
The people are not the property of the state to be commanded by those in power. We created the state to secure our liberty, not to violate it. The government serves the people, the people do not serve the government. Any official who attempts to reverse that relationship is unfit to hold office, and should be dismissed from the public payroll immediately, and prosecuted for his efforts.
It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the protester, who has given us the freedom to burn the flag.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who dies under the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag - so you can have your freedoms.
Just because you can put it in a pretty little poem doesn’t mean it’s true.
Gee, the North Koreans have a whole lot of soldiers. Why don’t they have all the freedoms you listed, dumbass?
I do think the military has made some contribution to our freedoms. However, not a day goes by when I read of government abuses here or abroad that I thank the founders of our nation. They wrote documents, established checks & balances and democratic processes that have created a firewall of protection that we grossly take for granted.
Soulfully,
Chuck
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_3 02154.html?vgnmr=1
I must say, I find your cowardice quite nauseating. Do you not realise the dire threat we face from our enemies? To shrug off the military contribution to our fine nation is disgracefully unpatriotic of you. If it were not for our brave troops you probably wouldn’t be around to post this.
George,
Here is the complete thought. I do give the military partial credit. I just don’t think that is the whole story.
Soulfully,
Chuck
“I don%u2019t buy into the myth that %u201Cserving my country%u201D equates to being in the military, dropping bombs and fighting wars. Surely, the Peace Corp or AmeriCorp is at least as valuable a service to our nation as being a soldier. I question the unassailable wisdom that we owe our freedoms to the armed forces. I will grant partial truth to this adage but it strikes me as more propaganda than proverb.”
I must say that as a member of the ministry I find your patriotism just as nauseating. Our military is abused by the powerful, and as such are more like thugs than protectors. Certainly there have been periods in our history when soldiers fighting in defense of our nation have indeed contributed to our freedoms. However, the war in Iraq has not been one of those times.
Further, you miss the very important point that non-military contributions can be made, and are made daily: Doctors who treat the ill at no cost; Lawyers who contribute their time to defend the defenseless; Aide workers who feed the hungry; peacekeepers who arbitrate and calm disputes; and workers who build shelters.
Perhaps you are fortunate enough to never have needed such help, but there is a significant sector of our society which does. Military service is not the only honorable or patriotic way to serve our nation.
Finally, I must add that it is the Lord to which I serve, not any government. If you see that as unpatriotic, so be it.
Support our Troops. Take a homeless veteran to lunch.
This was my favorite part…
“I could care less about titles and rank. I%u2019m a Unitarian Universalist Minsiter.”
I thought you didn’t care about titles?
You nailed me on that one! I would say that “minister” is more of an occupational description. “Reverend” or “Pastor” are titles. Kind of like plumber vs. “Joe the Plumber!!”
Soulfully,
Chuck
My father, uncle, brother and grandfather would like to thank you for so poetically shitting on their graves. They would also like to applaud you for utilizing the freedoms that their blood, sweat, tears and unending nightmares brought you. The reason that N. Korea doesn’t have the freedoms that we do, even though they have a bunch of soldiers is because they are a bunch of socialist, communists. You think that all these other countries offer you the kinds of freedoms that you have here? Try being a N. Korean and insulting the military there. They’d just as soon take you out back and blow your brains out as look at you. You might not think that serving your country means fighting a war for it, but at least you have that option. In some of these countries your not given the option to server your country, you just have to or die. Or, heck you might die anyway at some “state sponsored” job.
Give me military service and the right to speak my mind any day over giving me everything on a silver platter and no choices at all.