I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them on proclamations…and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.

There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity…Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene besides the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.

From A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway. Via Connect The Dots…

B’shalom,

Jeff

Nevertheless, from the perspective that I think Sullivan took – which is that of the individuals who have no first-hand experience in combat or the military, finding books, finding those who are willing to talk or who are already out there talking might be worth engaging. I didn’t read what she wrote as suggesting we accost folks or anything.

I have family members and friends who were combat veterans, some of them highly decorated, and none of them want to even discuss their service. Some were drafted. Some volunteered.Their service was hard and traumatic. They did what they were sent to do, often heroically, and they came home and hoped that they could get on with their lives. Nobody spit on them. Nobody criticized them. But they went through hell, and the adjustment back into calm American family life was difficult. Some of them made the adjustment. Others didn’t. But none of the ones I know thought that a parade when they came home would have made a difference.

You could have a conversation with your state rep.

I’ll echo Chuck’s sentiments.

You can’t describe the scent of a rose if you’ve never smelled one.

Having said that, I also agree with his suggestion to read, read, read.

I highly recommend the works of Stephen Ambrose. I recently finished The Wild Blue, the story of the men who flew the B-24s in WW II.

I have a friend who was a B-24 tail gunner. I’ll never look at the man the same way again.

B’shalom,

Jeff