As a veteran from 40 years ago myself, I was thinking the other day that lately the word “hero” has been tossed around again as much as the word “awesome” is today by the kids. Personally, the term “hero” would definitely NOT be a fitting description in any sense of the word for most of the men and women who were my contemporaries back then. Simply stated, they were there to do a job as either draftees or voluntary enlisted… collect their pay… obtain the benefits… get training, experience and an education — and then get the **** out. No brass bands, no medals, no florid speeches by political luminaries. Just collect that precious DD-214 and hit the road, jack.
In this age where descriptive superlatives are turned into generic buzzwords to advertise somebody’s agenda, somehow the meaning of “hero” gets lost somewhere between describing a sandwich and the antics of Wonder Woman. “Heroic”? Perhaps … but when they hung that Medal of Freedom around Rush Limbaugh’s neck, it was “game over” for me in the integrity department when it comes to somebody earning that accolade. Suddenly it was as if gold went from $1,700 an ounce to a nickel a pound. Everything precious and sacred has been cheapened so much over the last 3-½ years that I’ve been expecting Trump to award Edward Gallagher the Medal of Honor any day now.
Maybe I’ve taken too many trips around the sun and my eyes have seen too much to play loosely with serious things anymore, but considering the dangerous times we find ourselves in today and the real loss of integrity this country has sustained as a result of indifference, inattention and greed, the only real heroes we have in America are the war dead at rest in veterans cemeteries. They gave their lives for a uniquely abstract idea: the preservation of their contemporary way of life and their progeny’s future living in liberty and peace. It has always been up to us, the living, to advance that abstract idea that those men and women paid for with their blood, and more often than not we have failed them because of distractions, disinformation, petty bickering and prejudice. Given the ruinous circumstances of COVID-19, our hacked federal government, rigged justice system, crippled economy and sullied reputation among our allies, may we remember those war dead and have the clarity of discernment they fought and died for this coming November to take this country out of the prison of fascism and bring it back into recovery.