The Occasional Dissident

Looking out my window, I can see clearly the Air Force Memorial.  It looms over the Pentagon, bordering the vast expanse of sacrifice-filled Arlington National Cemetery.  I returned to this area as the memorial was being constructed and watched its completion in rapt fascination.  I passed by almost daily on a bus that runs from my home to the Pentagon terminal, coming within a hundred yards or so of the base of the arcs that soar overhead.  I had passed countless times before a realization swelled my chest with pride.  This magnificent memorial, this expense of labor and tax dollars, was a tribute to my service as well as the service of millions who served with me, before me, and who will serve long after I am gone.  Thank you.  It was an honor to serve.

This morning, I read an editorial in the Washington Post that calls our attention to the sacrifices of our brothers and sisters who donned a uniform in service to our country and Constitution.  It is heartfelt and moving, but it is inappropriate nonetheless.  The editors note that besides physical injuries, those who have served in combat and close to combat have suffered grievous mental and emotional wounds as well, and the editors call on us to honor the sacrifice of these veterans.  Fine.  But just as the Air Force Memorial honors two groups—those like me, who survived, and those, more than 54,000, who died in battle—our nation provides two honors.  The Post editors are part of a larger, widespread mistake—witness last night’s event on the National Mall—when we decide to honor veterans on Memorial Day.  Veterans Day is still more than five months away.

I am sympathetic to the urge.  Thanking and supporting a veteran is more interactive and satisfying.  For those who may need confirmation that they are doing something good, having a veteran smile back after they are thanked for their service is a reward.  For some who feel incomplete in their patriotism, it may fill a gap and perhaps warms the heart that one more heroic and brave than they treats them kindly.  Consider the alternative.  Standing before a white headstone in Arlington and paying one’s respects yields only a silence that seems to condemn with a guilt-laden “What have you done for your country?”  Lacking the smile, any gaps we feel in our patriotism seem magnified to unbearable size.  Smiles are available, however.  Today, as it does occasionally, the Post covered two pages in the pictures of our best patriots who went to Afghanistan and Iraq and paid, like millions before them, a price—the whole price—that the vast majority of us will not pay.  Some of the pictures smile back at us, but no amount of whispering “thank you” at the mute pages will bring comfort.  Better to head for the beach or a back yard and maybe raise a toast, we conclude.  But, we can do better.

The Post also ran a story today about a fiancée grieving over the loss of her intended during a tour in Iraq—a soldier who had already survived a tour in Afghanistan.  The grieving young woman has been aided by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and is now employed by the group.  TAPS (www.taps.org) accepts volunteers and donations.  So, undoubtedly, does an organization or church engaged in supporting grieving families near you.  Their lost loved one is more than a headstone, more than a picture in the paper, more even than the soaring spires of the Air Force Memorial or any of the memorials erected in their honor and their memory.  These sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, are fond and sometimes painful memories reactivated each Memorial Day like an arrow to the heart.  They, not a veteran like me or the countless others who have survived our service and our nation’s wars, are the right targets of our thanks.  They may even honor us with a smile in return.

If you do nothing more today, remind yourself and those around you of the tragic cost to each and every family and the horrible toll to our nation.  Share with others, for example, that likely within a month, almost certainly by Independence Day, we will reach a total of 5,000 American fatalities in Afghanistan and Iraq.  (The Department of Defense count which slight lags its press releases of casualties, lists 682 fatalities in Afghanistan and 4,299 in Iraq.  The web site icasualites.org, which posts data from the DoD press releases, lists totals of 687 and 4,300, respectively.  Contractors fatalities may total more than 1,350 additional deaths according to Steven Schooner in “Remember Them, Too,” in today’s Post.)  Remind yourself and those you can reach that in Arlington National Cemetery and in cemeteries around the country, new headstones are constantly being placed.  Remember that the number of people we should honor on Memorial Day—and the families we must thank and support every day—is on the rise.

The headstones, the pictures, the stories all ask insistently to each of us “What have you done for your country?”  They will ask again next spring. Perhaps we can all have better answers by then.

-Alan Howe, May 25, 2009