Veterans' Day
Nov. 11th, 2007 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vulgarweedThere is a certain element in my country that has a definition of patriotism that prefers dead veterans to living ones.
It's far easier to use their graves as backdrops for photo-ops for pious speeches about "sacrifice" and "supporting the troops" when there's no chance of the veterans themselves piping up with inconvenient truths about what they knew and who they were.
Anti-war and GLBT veterans' groups censored in parades in California and Atlanta.
And the most shocking: 1 out of every 4 Homeless People in the United States is a Veteran.
War caused a big generational rift in my family. My great-grandfather was a WWI vet (and I did get the privilege of knowing him; he lived well into his 90s and I was a teenager when he died); my grandfather a WWII vet with a Purple Heart and bum leg; my father thought his generation's war was WRONGWRONGWRONG (Vietnam) and stayed here and protested instead. I think they're all patriots, in a way I respect.
It's far easier to use their graves as backdrops for photo-ops for pious speeches about "sacrifice" and "supporting the troops" when there's no chance of the veterans themselves piping up with inconvenient truths about what they knew and who they were.
Anti-war and GLBT veterans' groups censored in parades in California and Atlanta.
And the most shocking: 1 out of every 4 Homeless People in the United States is a Veteran.
War caused a big generational rift in my family. My great-grandfather was a WWI vet (and I did get the privilege of knowing him; he lived well into his 90s and I was a teenager when he died); my grandfather a WWII vet with a Purple Heart and bum leg; my father thought his generation's war was WRONGWRONGWRONG (Vietnam) and stayed here and protested instead. I think they're all patriots, in a way I respect.
