Veterans Day can be hard
Veterans Day is a hard holiday for me. I seldom acknowledge my status as a vet. When I do it is often more as a joke than as a serious statement. I even have a ball cap that reads, “Disorderly Vet. Don’t bother me.” There are a couple of reasons for the attempt at humor. One of them is that I really do hate it when well-meaning people say, “Thank you for your service.” More often than not those words are rote, bland, and meaningless, as if the person uttering them feels obligated to say … something.
It is that blank behind the statement that gets to me. I do not think many folks really understand what happens when a man or woman takes the oath to serve. We tap into a chain of events, a frame of mind and a spirit of selflessness that goes way back. First there is the oath itself. We swear to protect and defend the people and the Constitution of the United States. Our oath is not sworn to one man or woman, such as the oath the German military took to Adolf Hitler during World War II. We swore it to principle and people, not a government or a dictator. We fit ourselves into one of several traditions, depending on the branch we chose and the history, the chain of events, behind it.
The frame of mind is best explained in the anthem, the fourth verse of Star Spangled Banner, written during the War of 1812. It reads as follows. “O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved homes and the war’s desolation. Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’”
The verse acknowledges events. It describes the frame of mind, protection of home in the extended sense of both the people and the nation in which they live.And it hints very broadly of the spirit of selflessness needed to stand and run into danger instead of running away from it.
The spirit of selflessness, that ability to put others first, even at the extreme cost, is what has stood our country in good stead throughout its history. The roots of it extend back to a time that began even before we were our own country.
However, George Washington explained the roots of that selflessness after most of a lifetime of experience, thought and prayer. He told us what he had learned in his Farewell Address. Here is the part with which we are concerning ourselves. “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
From this one paragraph of the speech alone it is easy to see that in the opinion of the Father of Our Country the virtues that make for both a stable society and the character of the member of the military go right back to the Biblical principles that tell us how to decide right from wrong.
Those principles are the basis for the traditions of the military and its expectations for all members regardless of rank or duty station. They should also be the goals or aspirations to which every person in this country should aspire. So when people tell me, “Thank you for your service,” in such a casual manner, I cannot help but wonder if they understand the weight of the meaning behind the term, service. I also wonder if they share the values that weight of meaning holds.
Let me be blunt. To mangle a quote from an unknown author, only two people have died for you without reservation. The American serviceperson died for your freedom. Jesus Christ died for the redemption of your soul. A mere thank you without understanding, without attempting to live in the way that honors them and their sacrifice, is only empty verbiage.