Just wanted to post a note of thanks for the men and women of the Armed Forces. In Canada we're celebrating Remembrance Day (it's a Commonwealth thing), and I wanted to just voice my personal appreciation for the work that was done by American soldiers to help secure my country's freedom, and thanks for the work being done in the world to secure freedom for people who wouldn't otherwise have any.
Not looking for the political debate, just wanted to offer my thanks.
(The following isn't aimed at you, FG--I already get the impression that you understand and appreciate the general points I'll make here...for some reason, perhaps having to do with a history of jumping to the defense of the Commonwealth's "Mother Country" repeatedly since the mid-19th century, Canadians in general have a closer relationship with their military, and awareness of its history (which is still taught in some detail in the schools, from what I understand), than is normally the case down here--so an honest and heartfelt thanks for your thoughts--AND for providing an appropriate "jumping-off point" for some things I'd like to say--and feel that among fellow Gators, specifically the generally thoughtful and intelligent individuals I think so highly of at THIS site, is a good place to say them.)
As a combat vet from a military family, what is now called "Veteran's Day" here in the U.S. and when I was a kid was called "Armistice Day" (it marked "the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month", the agreed-upon-by-the-Great-Powers date and time that "armistice", the cessation of hostilities, ended WWI, "The Great War", "The War To End All War", and many other now-ironic and sad referents: all the adults around me wore poppies on their lapels to show remembrance and solidarity--from the poem about the great U.S. Armed Forces Cemetery in France, which began: "In Flanders' Field, the poppies grow, Beneath the gravestones row-by-row..."; as kids we were made to memorize it, along with The Declaration of Independence and The Preamble To The Constitution), has always been a rather solemn one--and a bit of a "disconnect", too. Won't go into it all here, except to say that for me, the feelings are complex and mixed. There are the memories of growing up and hearing all the stories, and having men and women around me who made sure I appreciated not just MY heritage, but that of every American: that I understood my freedoms, and that "they were bought with blood". At the same time, there were the quiet tears of wives and mothers (I grew up on bases around the world) on that day. Then there are MY memories, all those faces (the ones I would rather forget, and the ones I am honored and determined to NEVER forget).
There have been many changes and shifts, even large swings over the years in "the accepted, status quo approach" to viewing our nation in general and our military in particular by its citizenry at large--and THAT plays into my "ambivalence" too. I take neither solace nor offense from ANY of it: I simply don't TRUST "popular opinion" and "accepted wisdom"--too much "group think" in it all, which is really not "thinking" at all, in my opinion.
What I would ask, if I had the chance, the point I would make to every civilian without experience or ties to the military in a republic (and personally, I believe EVERY American who is physically able should have to give service to either one of the military arms OR the Peace Corps, their choice, for 2 years beginning on their 18th birthday), is that instead of thanking us ("...'cause that's just what you DO...") they make it a point to LEARN something about our history, that of our military itself, of its founding and growth, and/or our very rights, the constitution and its Bill of Rights, and so on, become more aware of all the things that we once learned automatically just by growing up in America, but by now seems almost lost in the general laziness and ignorance that threatens to drown this society. You see, it is my certainty that only in this way will most come to truly understand and appreciate this country and its relationship with its military. The rest will take care of itself: the distance between "us and them" can thus be largely closed.
