If you want to keep your child home on Veterans Day, then by
all means do it. But invoking the MLK
card, the letter became nothing more than a racist rant.
Ask yourself this: Why did he choose MLK day? Why not
Columbus Day? Here’s a holiday with all
sorts of question marks attached to it.
I guess if we want to celebrate the “discovery” of the Bahamas, by all
means, take the day off. (Although I don’t
really understand how someone can discover a populated island, but that discussion
is for another day.) In fact, why
compare it to any other holiday? Wouldn’t the letter have made just as strong of a
point had the writer simply omitted the part about MLK Day? I mean, it is about the Veterans isn’t it?
I think the clincher was the comments the original poster
made. Something to the effect of “keep your race card in your pockett..It’s
worn out” (yeah, 2 t’s on pocket...nice). What the poster clearly doesn’t understand
is that comment alone made it completely
about race.
Let me tell you something.
Most Veterans in this country would look at this posting for what it
really is: the ranting of a frustrated boy
(I say boy because you really can’t call someone a man until they have earned
that title through their actions.) Most Veterans know exactly what the author
was trying to incite by posting it. This
guy doesn’t care about Vets. He cares
about making a political point under the guise of supporting Veterans.
Find a war Veteran who served in combat, and have a talk
with him. Try and get him to open up
about his experiences in the war. Good
luck. Most of them keep the bad stuff
inside. Rarely will they even open up to
their own family.
My dad served in the South Pacific during WWII. Growing up, we would ask dad about his war
days and what it was like. He would
never say a lot. Occasionally we would hear stories about how
he befriended a lizard in his tent that would sleep in his cot. Funny stuff.
Nothing serious. As I grew older,
I thought my dad must not have done much during the war.
After us kids had grown, the family all got together for
Memorial Day. One of us thought it would
be a good idea to go to the Veterans Home to pay our respects. It was a nice day, and the grounds at the Illinois
Veterans Home in Quincy are beautiful. Carol
and I walked to the WWII memorial. If
you are not familiar with the memorial, it has all the names of all the people
from the area that served in World War II.
Going down the long list of names, sure enough, there was Master Sergeant
Dean S. Johnson. I beamed with
pride.
As we were reading all the names to see if we recognized anyone
else on the list, I noticed Dad walking by himself toward the Memorial. We gave him his space as he intently browsed
the names. Soon dad stopped. And as I glanced over, with his hands on his
hips, I saw a tear rolling down his cheek.
He was viewing the name of an old friend from Quincy who was killed in
action. It was one of the most poignant
moments of my life. My dad didn’t talk
about the war because he didn’t want to
talk about the war.
A few years later, I made the mistake of listening to some
blowhard talk radio host complaining about a TV station that wasn’t going to
show a modern military movie without commercial interruption. Evidently it was being simulcast on several
different stations at the same time. He
went on and on about how it is every Americans duty to watch these shows. I asked my dad what his opinion was about
this. My dad was a very smart man. He understood that this clown radio host didn’t
give a rat’s ass about the Veterans, he only cared about stirring things up and
selling advertising. His two part answer
was short and sweet. He said “most
Veterans he knows wouldn’t watch a show like that, because it was far too
realistic.” He added: “we fought in the
war hoping that our children and grandchildren wouldn’t have to.” As his eyes welled up, he paused, relaxed,
and didn’t say another word.
I didn’t ask him anything else.
