June 6, 1944 – This date resonates with students of the
Second World War as the date of the “beginning of the end” of German occupation
of Western Europe. We remember the great
sacrifice made by men who stormed those beaches in France, now 70 years past,
and we are thankful. We give thanks for
their great courage, for their loyalty, their lives and their deaths. We will wave flags, we will hear speeches and
we will lay wreaths at the graves and monuments that mark the places of this
great battle.
However, I find myself wondering about the sacrifice and how
we remember it and honor it. Stephen
Spielberg’s cinematic paean, “Saving Private Ryan”, tells a story that includes
the incredible battlefields of the Normandy beaches. In the last scenes of the movie, as the squad
of men sent to save the title character lay wounded and dying, the movie’s hero
– Capt. Miller – orders Pvt. Ryan to “earn this”. The implication of such an
order being that somehow the death of soldiers can be earned.
Remembering this scene on the occasion of the 70th
anniversary of the invasion of Europe sparked a pang of guilt. What have we, who never saw any conflict,
done to earn the epic sacrifice of those we send to war? How dare we, who sat safe at home, compound
the injuries of those who stand in our stead?
We bicker over the budget for fighter jets the Air Force
doesn’t want, while we cut benefits for veterans and the VA. An American POW finally comes home and we
vilify him for political points. We walk
by people who are homeless, not acknowledging that a large percentage of these
people are veterans.
More than just this horrendous treatment of vets, we
continue to trample on the gift we have yet to earn by putting petty politics
ahead of building up our society. We allow our bridges and roads to crumble and
our cities to fail for political gains. We gut our education system and destroy the
dreams of children, all to gain nothing greater than profits for
billionaires.
I ask myself today, “How can we say we honor vets, honor
service members, and allow our county to be sold off to the highest
bidder”? Since WWII, more than 100,000
Americans have died in armed conflict.
Thousands more risked their mental health and well-being. How many came home, wounded and scarred? We act as if the cost they paid, for us, is
just to be expected. The loss of their
youth, in the name of our benefit, is normal and unimportant.
Ultimately, the short answer is that we fall short of the
nobility of their sacrifice; we fail to live up to their great gift. However, this can change. We are capable of a great conversion, a
redirection of our energy to create a new great beginning, to recapture the
nobility of spirit embodied in the offering of their lives, their health, and
their well-being. First, we must acknowledge the largely unearned nature of
what we have been given. Then we must be the changes we wish to
see. If we want to honor their gift, we
must work to make this country the place our young people believe it to be when
they volunteer to gift us.
To earn this, we must work for it. We must find a sense of honor and respect for
our fellow Americans. We must find our own loyalty – to our country, to the men
and women who serve in every capacity, to the functionality of our government –
and we, ourselves, must make sacrifices.
Only then will we earn it.
