Veterans' Day

We have all learned the lessons of the the Vietnam War. Many of those soldiers were drafted and fought in a war they didn't believe in. Those who had the money found a way out. When the veterans returned, they were shunned by a country that didn't support the war they fought in and didn't realize that most of them had very little choice. Many of them are still living on the streets.

Today's veterans are hailed as "heroes" and people drive around with yellow ribbons on their cars, but many veterans are still not getting the medical care they earned and deserve, and would insist that they are not heroes and were "just doing their jobs". Most of them will carry "moral injuries" with them for the rest of their lives because something they did under orders went against their own moral code of behavior. According to journalist David Wood, "moral injury" is the signature injury of all veterans, and the least well recognized.

Veterans are brave, smart, dedicated, and misunderstood. We glorify war in order to ease our consciences about sending them into dire situations. They don't want to be put on a pedestal and "dehumanized" any more than those who fight the war against Ebola. They want to be recognized as humans facing their fear, doing their jobs as best they can and getting on with their lives.

Veterans have my respect and admiration, not because they vanquished the enemy or even fought in a "war to end all war", but because they got on with their duties in the face of doubt and fear. They deserve better treatment than what most of them get when they return home.

In my humble opinion, the best we could possibly do for our veterans is not to create any more veterans, and to find other solutions to the world's problems than bloodshed, I am not against veterans. I am against war.

I suppose my picture for today could represent the contrast between the bleak and the glorious. I didn't do a thing to it.