Review of chess pdf::What Are the Answers to the Photosynthesis Crossword
Review of chess pdf::What Are the Answers to the Photosynthesis Crossword
A video has circulated largely in leftist blogs and media of a combat veteran, Shamar Thomas, taken during a recent protest in Times Square. In the video, Thomas reacts to the violence he has seen perpetuated against unarmed and peaceful demonstrators by the NYPD. Thomas was later interviewed by Keith Olbermann and talked about the experience and about the Occupy Wall Street movement. The whole scene has made me think very deeply about patriotism, and what that means. Few would argue that the decade following the September 11th attacks were a dark era for our country, and our national discourse. People were shocked and terrified and looking to our government for answers. Politicians were tripping over themselves to get to photo ops with the flag and talk about "supporting our troops." Meanwhile, the same politicians were sending young people like Mr. Thomas into Iraq with a big question mark as to how our country would keep peace in a nation of some 27 million people (2004, MIT Center for International Studies). Most shamefully, while politicians embraced their shameless patriotic jingoism, they were talking out both sides of their mouths, cutting veterans benefits, and sending their own children to private schools. Through the course of the Iraq War, a half-dozen members of congress had a child deployed to a war zone. (Joyner, outside the beltway) In 2004, the Bush Administration cut veteran benefits as part of the budget process. The shocking betrayal of service members doesn't end there of course. According to Go Army.com, base pay for a Private (E-1) is just over $17k annually. That's under eight dollars an hour to go to dangerous parts of the world where you risk being killed. (note: $8 is based on a forty-hour work week, having not been service member myself, I have a suspicion that active duty service members probably work a few more than forty hours a week.) Lastly, there is the question of what happens when young men and women return from war-zones and reintegrate with society. Our government is looking out for its service members once they get home, right? According to The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the VA is spending 3.8 bill. on mental health treatment, and 584 mill. on substance abuse treatment. In today's anemic economy, the rate of substance abuse, mental illness, and joblessness are significantly higher than for the general population for "Gulf Era II" veterans. (bls.gov) So, lastly, back to Shamar Thomas. In the Olbermann interview Thomas spoke about being from a military family. There is a legacy, that is often not talked about enough, of African-Americans who served this nation during war-time, and their own country didn't fully recognize their rights. Thomas's grandfather, who served in a segregated military, was one of those people. Thomas's father served in the Vietnam era, in the decade after the Civil Rights movement, and other members of Thomas's family, and Thomas himself, served in the Middle East. Moving away from this question of race relations in America, and back to the broader question of American patriotism. There is this question of what motivates a person to serve their country for roughly equivalent pay to what they could likely make behind a cash register. They are risking their lives in most cases, knowing their country will make them fight for disability claims, cut their health benefits, and remain more-or-less indifferent to them upon their return. To me it's a rather profound question. My own grandfather, Donald Breault, served as infantry in the Philippines in WWII. I know very little about his service. After the war, he traded his rifle for a kitana, returned home to Escanaba, Michigan, and went into business and made a life for himself. He is said by family to have remained very tight-lipped about his service to his country. He spoke to me about it, only once, over a game of chess, when I had driven out from NY to visit him. Among other things, he told me that as a young man, he joined with aspirations to become a pilot. My grandfather did eventually get a pilot's license and fly planes, but that was long after his service ended. My grandfather didn't brashly proclaim his love-of-country by having his picture taken in front of the flag, the sanctimonious way that politicians in this country do. He just quietly lived it, refusing almost to the end of his life to go to VA hospitals for health care. I see the same honorable humility existing in Shamar Thomas when he is interviewed and commenting about the role he seems to suddenly be thrust into, because he is speaking out against police brutality. Never question that there is some essential quality that is unique to people who make their vocation service to others and service to their country. |
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