Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

I think Veterans Day is a good idea. It was created to commemorate the end of the First World War, the one where we tried really hard to kill as many people as possible in a grueling, one-at-a-time, look-'em-in-the-eye kind of a way without all the help of the fancy machines we started using to do it en masse in World War II, or as it would be called now, World War Into Darkness or some shit.

I also wonder sometimes if Veterans Day hasn't become somewhat redundant what with the way the military has been fetishized into a cheap cudgel for Americans to batter each other with. It's gotten to the point where it's even used to express a position beyond anything that has anything to do with the military or defense. Like this gem:

See, because there's only one type of bravery that anyone is allowed to notice or make mention of in public. Saying anything else in the whole world involves any kind of courage of any differing level or social context is the same as saying you think people who get shot are cowards. This is the kind of things I think of when people post shit like this to facebook or wherever else. These are also the same people who, while trying to narrow the options of socially allowable discussion to suit their personal worldview, will usually follow up with some mention of how service members are specifically fighting "for our freedoms."

Of course I'm aware enough to know that people being martinets and assholes online isn't any real material limitation on my freedom of speech and that the First Amendment is meant to apply to government restrictions on expression. The atmosphere does make one carefully consider one's speech choices. It's one thing to worry about arrest or official censure for speech. It's another thing to pause for a beat and consider the Limbaugh-O'Reilly talking point tsunami you're likely to endure if you do say that thing you wanted to say. Sometimes freedom of speech costs a little bit.

WWI was also the one where we discovered shell shock and eventually, with a few literal a figurative slap-in-the-face reversals and switchbacks along the way, the beginnings of an understanding of the insistent, insidious effects of PTSD. Far from being invincible paragons of a 1950s ideal of manhood, veterans are a particularly vulnerable class of citizens, plagued by substance abuse and homelessness as a result of their service.

And if you look at persistent incidences of sexual assault committed by service members on other service members, it's a simple truth that not 100% of the people serving in the military are all heroes by uniform default. With that many people involved, there will be the odd sociopath, as in any other profession.

Also I'm not at my most comfortable in large groups engaged in flag-waving. The hostility just under the conformist pressure to participate I find unnerving. But for the record, I will fight all of them before I sing that fucking Lee Greenwood song.

The point is that the pageantry is great, but maybe we've overcorrected from the post-Vietnam shouting-"babykiller" phase and into something where the pedestal we've constructed casts too many shadows too deeply. A pat on the back doesn't help much if it's literally all you're prepared to do. If you really want to do something for veterans instead of making them take out their earbuds while they're sitting by themselves in an airport so YOU can have the honor of shaking their hand, do something else like learning about the needs of veterans looking for work and then posting positions onto sites dedicated to helping them find work. Don't worry though, even if you don't do that, you're still allowed to enjoy the parades and the aircraft flyovers. Just maybe not the giant flags before NFL games.