This was on PBS on Memorial Day: http://video.pbs.org/video/2318014363/ If you did not see it, it is well worth watching. It talks about how there was not a way to bury and acknowledge the war dead during the The War Between the North and the South (I purposefully chose not to call it the Civil War or the War of Northern Aggression), and how, out of that grew the national recognition we now have for our veterans, deceased and serving.
Amazingly, but understandably, the recording, remembrances, and honoring of the dead was most attributed to the slaves and freed slaves. Honoring the dead, black or white, was more important to them than to the Anglos at the time. Also, it was due to the hard physical labor of the blacks that the bodies of the deceased were dug up and re-interned or otherwise recognized. We had much to learn from the culture of the Afro-Americans, even then, that we ignored.
But this time resulted in the establishment of National Cemeteries. And the acknowledgement of the war dead as national heroes. President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm contributed so much to this recognition.
I agree with my niece it would be nice if we did not have to recruit and send our citizens in harm's way for the protection of our country. Sometimes, as with the Native Americans, our efforts have been less than honorable. Yet, also look at how many Native Americans have served the greater good of this nation. Sometimes, with our more recent wars and conflicts, we have been the aggressors, often in an attempt to keep the aggression off our continent, or so we think. Do you want more attacks like the ones on the World Trade Center? Or the Pentagon? Or the airplane over Pennsylvania?
Although I would like to not have a military force and see us send our citizens in harm's way, I am a realist, and I am not sure that is possible. And, harm's way can be recovery and rescue missions in the face of other types of tragedy as well as war: natural disaster, internal disruptive incidents of horrific result. And, I am glad those forces are there to help when these incidents occur.
I am not ashamed to thank people for their military service on behalf of our country. I also thank policemen, firemen, EMTs, and corrections officers. We do not appreciate how important that is. I called the fire department a couple of years ago: At about 10 PM, my furnace motor burned up, and I was concerned that it might have started a smoldering fire in the heater closet. 911 dispatch told me to vacate the house, and sent 3 fire trucks. The firemen swarmed through my house, checked the heater closet, the pump outside, the electric line connections, the roof, the back yard, the fuse box (I had to go back inside to show them where it was) and the attic. I apologized for the false alarm when nothing was found. They told me they would much rather I call before I had a problem than wait till I woke up in the middle of the night with a problem. I took that sincerely. I did not get a bill.
Local police, county, state and national police (FBI) are the equivalent of the military forces in our country. What would happen if we had none of that in place, last year, on April 15, 2013, at the end of the Boston Marathon. How do you prevent further destruction? That broke my heart.
We do not want to put lives on the line. But the reality is, lives are constantly being put on the line. Sometimes it is military, sometimes it police, fire, EMT. Sometimes it is people who work on ambulance services, helicopter ambulances, and even teachers and social workers.
What I came away within from watching this show is that we are a nation that has learned a very difficult lesson, and have had to learn it more than once, that it is very important to acknowledge, recognize, honor and revere our public servants, no matter what role they have. We have learned to acknowledge them by monuments, cemeteries, ceremonies, rituals, medals. Most recently, our communities have reached out and are starting to acknowledge them by special programs, services, and commerical and business options.
Also, most recently I am aware of the scandal of the problems in the Veteran's Administration regarding of the veteran's health care system: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/05/15/a-guide-to-the-va-health-care-controversy/. I do not know the truths of the Veteran's Administration Health Care System. I want to believe it is well intentioned. But this is not the first time the VA has had a black eye regarding veteran's health care. Note this story about Veteran's Health care in 2003 http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/25/loc_VAhealthcare.html. The point is we constantly need to strive to be sure that our Veterans receive the benefits and assistance they truly deserve.
And, I am so proud that this is a part of our national heritage. I am not familiar with other countries. I wonder how this is handled in other countries. It may be better, and we may have more to learn from other countries. It is my dearest hope we are doing everything we can to help and acknowledge our service providers.
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