Editorial

— Rollie Atkinson
We join with all others who paused this week to remember and
give thanks to our military veterans. Their service to our country,
no matter the era or political consequences, remains the most
supreme human sacrifice any man or woman can pledge to his or her
fellow countrymen.
Each year’s Veterans’ Day ceremonies around the monuments in our
town squares and at local gravesides are both very solemn and very
wonderful gatherings. We are reminded of the terrible loss and
tragedy of war. And we also revive our patriotic pride in our
nation, this great land of freedom, justice and compassion.
Veterans’ Day is not just for veterans of war. The Veterans’ Day
ceremonies are attended by family, widows and grandchildren.
Non-military veterans who wore the different uniforms of a fireman
or a police officer also attend. Other types of veterans have other
uniforms, like nurses, teachers, pastors, judges, social workers
and farmers.
Through history, our nation has been kept whole and safe by our
military men and women but there have been many other “sacrifices”
and public service volunteers we should also pause to honor and
give thanks.
Even if we might live in a future free from war, mass violence
or a foreign nation’s threats, our country will still need
courageous heroes and unselfish volunteers. Our common ideal of a
free and peaceful country will forever require each of us to “care”
for the lives, liberties and rights of one another.
“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do
for your country,” John F. Kennedy, our nation’s 35th president,
said in his inaugural address in January 1961. His call was not
only a “call to arms” for more soldiers. Kennedy also called for
citizens to fight domestic poverty, racial discrimination, new
scientific challenges of space travel and increased efforts in
foreign diplomacy and universal brotherhood.
We have not done much as a nation over the last 50 years to
reduce the number of military veterans that have been called into
war and armed conflict. Today, our nation has almost 200,000 men
and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. American families are delivered
news each week about a fallen son or daughter. Others must endure
the modern cruelty of post stress syndrom, mental illness and loss
of limbs and crippled bodies.
If all war stopped today, our country and its families must
still live through many more Veterans’ Days with scarred soldiers
and tragic reminders of the supreme cost of combat in our nation’s
name.
Kennedy’s call also gave us different veterans. His envisioned
New Frontier brought us Peace Corps volunteers and VISTA
anti-poverty workers. A different spirit of patriotism was ignited
— especially among a younger generation. Many multi-cultural,
student exchange and non-denominatinal religious projects were
launched.
The end to ugly and violent discrimination against Blacks was
largely a volunteer effort, led by “armies” of Civil Rights
protesters. Later, as we expanded our notion that we were not just
of one nation but were all passengers on the same earth spaceship,
a mass volunteer effort gave rise to the Environmental Movement.
And, today, we have thousands of eco-veterans, too.
We live in times where our country is having some very strained
conversations about our government’s role around the world — and
even at home. Very splintered groups of us are arguing about the
virtues of being a volunteer or a veteran. To preserve our free
country and take responsibility for one another, should we expand
health care to more of us, just as we ask our government to build
armies to protect more of us? Is it still OK to march against
bigotry and call for social equity?
Or, has our nation — the one defended by our military veterans —
progressed beyond needing to ask Kennedy’s call to voluntary
contributions, sacrifice and idealism?
Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what kind of
veteran you hope to become.