I’ve known my share of military veterans. For years I’ve watched
how we treat them. Sadly, we tend to stereotype them. We shouldn’t.
Veterans aren’t all heroes. Some, many, maybe even most, may
be. Some aren’t, in my experience. In my life, I’ve met some of the finest
individuals on the planet who have worn, or are now wearing, the uniform of our
country. I’ve also met some of the sorriest sons of bitches you would never
want to associate with in your life, not hordes of them, but more than a few.
What veterans do have in common is that they, assuming they completed their service honorably, have done something that most other
Americans haven’t done, or won’t do. They have paid a price in time, danger, injury,
or psychological demands that less than one-percent of Americans are now
willing to pay, Other than that, they are simply a group of Americans that are
as diverse and immune to labeling as any.
We try though, to label them that is. In my lifetime, World
War Two veterans were typecast as ordinary people who rose to do extraordinary
things and were granted hero status for their sacrifice. That luster has never
faded.
Korean War veterans were simply the leftover heroes or their
younger brothers. We didn’t want to think about them after the Great Challenge.
Along came Vietnam. That was where the stereotyping became
cruel and senseless. They were
crazy, drug-obsessed, wastrels not fit to marry your daughters. Even as recently
as last month, I read a newly released novel that had, you guessed it, the obligatory
Vietnam veteran character who was mentally deranged and simply walked the
streets of the city talking to himself. I immediately thought of a friend and fellow veteran
of that sad and senseless war who recently retired from an illustrious career
with one of the most prestigious law firms in Arkansas. His type has never appeared in book or film.
Let’s return to the deranged Vietnam Vet wandering the city
and scaring the hell out of decent folks. Along the way, he would see, no doubt,
many veterans of wars waged since Vietnam. Those veterans are, to a man or woman,
we are led to believe, all homeless dependents. The insults and cruelty continue
to this day.
The point herein is this: Serving America is both an honor
and a badge of merit. It is not a singular characteristic for electing leaders.
Ulysses S. Grant was a great general but mediocre (although perhaps not, according
to Ron Chernow, to the extent that history has chosen to typecast him)
president.
Joseph McCarthy was a veteran of World War Two and tried his
best to do great harm to many Americans after he was elected to the Senate. Is
there a cautionary tale therein or what?
Lee Harvey Oswald was a veteran who murdered an innocent man,
casting the entire planet into turmoil, because that man was president of our
country.
Charles Whitman was a veteran who shot and killed college
students from a tower on the University of Texas campus.
General Curtis LeMay was an honored veteran who later ran
for office as George Wallace’s potential vice-president.
And the list goes on. While pondering it, we might consider
that John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, among others, never wore the
uniform. Abraham Lincoln only served briefly in a militia unit and never, in all
my readings, claimed that experience as forming military expertise or a prerequisite
for leadership.
My opinion, and mine only, is that we may afford veteran
status whatever degree of importance we wish, but should use our blessed
cognitive abilities to decide to what degree that status would make one a great
leader for all Americans.
Motives are motives, after all. Did serving in our military make
one suitable for leadership, or was it simply a calculated gesture to “have one’s
ticket punched” for later political aggrandizement?
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| Monument to the 442nd Regiment. Japanese American Internment Camp Rower, Arkansas. - Real Heroes. |
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