Remembrance Day rant

[the_siobhan]

Warning: Partially incoherent


I am not a pacifist.

Far from it. If my life has shown me anything, it has shown me that Not Taking Shit is the only way that shit will not be delivered unto thee. I don't like being picked on, so standing up for myself has become a bit of a policy of mine.

Having said that, I have no issue with pacifists. In fact I admire them. People who are willing to take whatever fate metes out in order to prove their point and live up to their ideals gain my absolute admiration. It's a way tougher road than I am capable of walking, and more power to them on their journey.

But I do believe that there is a place for force in the world. It is a tool, and in some cases it is the only language that bullies understand. When somebody respects nothing but force, you show him force and he will sit the fuck down. But I think it's important to remember that it is only a tool. Ideally it should be one among many - if possible the tool of last resort. I have seen that public opinion will sometimes sway a bully when public opinion is important to that bully - it worked for Gandhi and Nelson Mandela and Amnesty International has built an entire mission statement out of it. I strongly believe in debate, I believe in negotiation, I believe in sanctions, I believe in economic pressure. i believe that one tries every possible means before one brings out the big guns. I believe, that just as when one is dealing with wild animals, one always gives one's enemies a way to back out gracefully amd save face.

And I also believe that those things are sometimes not possible.

And when every other recourse has been tested and has failed, people fight. And people die.

I see those stupid stickers that say "support our troops" and they make me angry, because all those people are really supporting is factories that manufacture magnetic car stickers. Have you voted for politicians that don't waste the lives of enlisted men on piddling political gains and winning elections and ensuring oil company profits? How about making sure that those troops you are supporting so fervently have absolutely the best in equipment and training? And medical services for LIFE, because it don't mean shit if their disease or their syndrome or whatever the fuck was contracted during their service, they deserve to be taken care of for life simply because they offered the biggest risk that any citizen can take. Give them citizenship if that's an issue in your country. Give them education. Free. Under any circumstances. Support for their families, so they don't have to chose between serving their country and paying Little Timmy's medical bills. There Should Not Be any suck fucking thing as vets living on the street. Ever.

I believe that people who offer the "ultimate sacrifice" as it's euphemistically called, deserve absolutely the best of all of those things. Not because of some romantic fetishization of military hardware, but because they offered to fucking die if that's what it took to accomplish the goals that their country held as being important at that time.

Yeah, I have a big fucking hard-on for soldiers even though I have never been one. I also have a big fucking hard-on for firemen, people who defuse bombs, people who staff hospitals in war zones, all those people whose professions demand that they suck it up and say, "I might die here today. And it will be worth it if other people don't die because I was here."

Remembrance Day, for me, is about respecting people who made the sacrifice that was asked of them. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't noble. It was necessary. And they fucking died. And two minutes of silence is the least we can do to acknowledge the fact that they did it so we wouldn't have to. That's the easy part. Throwing some actual dosh and some will behind taking care of those who survived ought to be worth even more.

Comments

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Funny, I was thinking about this driving home.

"I see those stupid stickers that say "support our troops" and they make me angry, because all those people are really supporting is factories that manufacture magnetic car stickers. "

By the same token, those people with "free tibet" stickers aren't doing anything at all to actually shift the PRC out of their occupation of Tibet.

Otherwise huzza for your thoughts on 11/11. I should'a worn a poppy on my lapel, but then we can't find those down here. I know a chap out of Canada that wears his daily since there are Canadians in harms way in Afghanistan.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

By the same token, those people with "free tibet" stickers aren't doing anything at all to actually shift the PRC out of their occupation of Tibet.

Yes. Exactly.

I had a discussion today with bcholmes about "white liberals". Lovely, well-meaning people who pronounce solemnly that Something Must Be Done, but to whom it never seesm to occor to get off their ass and do anything.

They are the bane of my existance.

Otherwise huzza for your thoughts on 11/11. I should'a worn a poppy on my lapel, but then we can't find those down here. I know a chap out of Canada that wears his daily since there are Canadians in harms way in Afghanistan.

The newspapers keep publishing these polls that say we shouldn't be in Afghanistan and it drives me craxy. Because if you ask the exact same people "should we do more in Dafur" or "should we have done more in Rawanda" I know they will all say yes.

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae, 1915

My grandfather who fought in Europe and North Africa had some tales about Canadian soldiers. They were fierce. The Devil's Brigade saved the lives of many in his unit at Anzio, when they were in a bit of a jam.

Silence is easy. Repaying the debt owed is another matter, isn't it?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

PS

Really you can't fine poppys?

I can provably grab you one here if you want onen and send it to you for next year.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Silence is easy. Repaying the debt owed is another matter, isn't it?

That requires effor, which is hard.

Or money. Which is even harder, apparently.

thinking in stacatto tonight,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I have known SO MANY vets who are homeless

That is totally Not Cool in my book.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

In the US, 1 in 4 adult males that you see sleeping in a doorway is a vet.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

froma couple years ago on this day...

http://raindrops.livejournal.com/358451.html

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

thinking in staccato as well, it seems...

just re-checked the link on my 2004 post, the number is now 1 in THREE homeless males are veterans

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Live ones yes, but they're not in season now. The little plastic ones that are designed to be worn as lapel pins aren't around here. Not a US thing. I've been meaning to get a friend from the commonwealth to send me a gross so I have something to hand out to folks.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'll hook you up.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Fucking. Hell.

That is unforgivable.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

The newspapers keep publishing these polls that say we shouldn't be in Afghanistan and it drives me craxy. Because if you ask the exact same people "should we do more in Dafur" or "should we have done more in Rawanda" I know they will all say yes.


Yeah. I saw a video of some Canadian's in Halifax protesting Canada being in Afghanistan and one of their number being arrested. One of their responses was to call the Cops Fascist. Odd that. I wonder if they understand the derivation of the word and that a proper fascist would have their friend executed in less than a week if not there on the spot. Guess they think groups like the Taliban are just dandy though. It makes no sense to me. I'd expect the liberals of the standard sort jumping up and down at the death's of the likes of the Taliban given how wretchedly awful they are and how the Taliban oppose everything western liberals hold dear. Having seen beneath the veil, I have no misconceptions about how evil they really are.

I do give Clinton credit for actually doing something about the Balkans, even if it did take 10 years. Still, Europe dragged their feet quite badly and it too NATO to do something at our urging. Though, we're still there, in spite of the promises to be home by Christmas. Brigades and Divisions in the Regular US army and reserve formations rotate through there regularly. It's hardly even mentioned on the news any more. Same thing goes for Afghanistan. Darfur seems like it's going to be another repeat of any number of instances where the UN and the west does nothing. Though the US has been trying to get something going. Interesting the response from Darfur, even Aid operations would be seen as an act of war. Which has me thinking it's going to take NATO and the US Marines to kick the door in. A concert certainly isn't going to do squat.

Growing up and learning about history, I lamented the alliances we had to make in WWII and during the Cold War to fight the bigger threat. Greece and our compromises there are chief among those regrets. That and Poland in post WWII Europe. The London Poles really got the shaft from our Soviet 'Allies'. In some ways, I wish we'd done what Patton had reccomended. Now that we're down to brass tacks, we can deal with the petty dictatorial regimes we propped up or had to play ball with to get the bigger job done. That's how I can agree with the neo-con's basic argument of drain the swamp. Ultimately, I expect to see the Egyptians and Saudi's pressured mightily once Iraq is stabilized. That way when they are pressured and their oil production is halted for a time, the world economy won't go in the crapper. Fact is, the US could fort up with North Sea and Canadian oil resources plus our locally pumped oil, but Japan and Europe would fall on their knees in a few months if Mid East oil were halted. We can't let that happen.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Let me know how much.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

2 out of the three main office staff here are vets (obviously, one is me). One of our off-and-on volunteers had half his face blown off in Vietnam. A volunteer at the CoH that I see on the street now and then was a forward artillery observer in that same "war." He got a little messed up too. A very high percentage of the people who do what we do is either a vet or related to one.

I think perhaps that the vets who do this work are pissed as much as I am... we got sent off to "defend the homeland," yet there was no home when we got back.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[montieth.livejournal.com]

The trick is that the mental health system got reformed such that it took much more to keep someone in an institution. To do so now requires that they be a danger to themselves or others. Living on the streets isn't a danger it's a choice. Otherwise, it's more or less locking them up which isn't a humane response either from a rights perspective.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

My biggest exposure to vets, oddly enough, happened when I was working at pagan festivals. The biggest pagan festival in North America just happens to take place on a piece of land owned by a Vietnam vet, who hired his pagan or pagan-inclined or pagan-tolerant buddies to work grounds and security.

I fucking loved those guys. I have never workd with a more prsonally disfunctional yet professionally efficient group of people in my entire life. (I saw what happened when they went into "emergency" mode and it was fucking impressive.) And I got to spend enough time with them that I got a real sense of what they were dealing with every day of their "normal" lives. I really appreciated that experience.

I've talked to people who lived through WWII who talked about living on rations and making sacrifices and they talk about it with such price. I try to picture people I know now doing that so that vets and soldiers get to have even something as simple as basic support so they don't have to sleep in doorways and I get really nervous because I just don't know if people car that much.

Having said that, very few of the homeless I talk to here are vets. I don't know if that means we have better support for people leaving the servic, or we just have fewer people serving.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Living on the streets isn't a danger it's a choice.

When all the other choices are worse.

Been there. Not fooled.

(Not direct at you, obviously.)

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

My typos are killing me tonight. I've talked to civilians who lived through WWII and wore their sacrifices with pride.

[kest]

I've found that living in what is probably the capital of "white liberal" world has made me increasingly practical. Fucking *do* something, or shut your trap and get out of my way.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

How about we start a 2 minutes of SCREAMING OUTRAGE tradition on Nov 11, aiming for next year.

We can't be the only people who think that's an outrageous statistic.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

You'll get to read the report that I've been writing about in a couple days. One of the acknowledgements is to a woman who escaped from Hungary to the States during the war. Hungarian Jews didn't exactly have a high survival rate in that time and place. She's 85 now, her husband 92 or thereabouts. She was our copyeditor and "editor of woof." Having a former Dean of the College of Journalism at UC Berkeley as your editor is a good thing. ;-)

Her best friend, also a close friend of ours, was the first female journalist to jump out of a perfectly good airplane with a bunch of guys whose mission it was to kill or otherwise neutralize a bunch of other guys, in WW2. We were just talking about that today. "It was my job," she said, "I had to cover the story so the truth would be known later on." Guess she was one of the original embedded reporters.

You can take pride in sacrifice... but you damn well better have been the one who made them.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

The public mental health systems were cleared out in the 50s and 60s to a much greater degree than they were in the 70s, 80s, 90s. The point of that statement is that, once upon a time, we had systems in place to help people who needed help, but now they exist in name only, but without funding.

Living on the street is not a choice; it's the bottom rung of the ladder. True, there are some who do choose it, as their own personal Declaration of Independence, but ask the 600,000 homeless students enrolled in public schools what they'd rather have, and I'm pretty sure that most would say... a home.

Ask the 500,000 US veterans who experience homelessness in a given year, and they'd say the same.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

How about a 5 minute observance? 2 minutes of silence to remember and collect your thoughts, then 3 minutes of screaming outrage.

Then, of course, BAU, because Life must go on for those who put the poor bastards there in the first place.

Re: thinking in stacatto tonight,

[redcountess]

*fingers crossed* that now that the Democrats have control of the US Senate again, more money is appropriated to VA (and that the UN stops being emasculated, so they can do something about Darfur, etc.)