{"id":1259,"date":"2006-11-10T17:19:57","date_gmt":"2006-11-10T17:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-11-10T17:33:34","modified_gmt":"2006-11-10T17:33:34","slug":"veterans_day_20_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=1259","title":{"rendered":"Veteran’s Day 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2002, I wrote this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I STARTED TO WRITE ABOUT VETERAN’S DAY…<\/b><\/p>\n

…and to thank the veterans alive and dead for protecting me and mine.<\/p>\n

And worried that what I wrote kept coming out sounding either too qualified or would be interpreted as being too nationalistic.<\/p>\n

And I realized something about my own thinking, a basic principle I’ll set out as a guiding point for the Democrats and the Left in general as they try and figure out the next act in this drama we are in.<\/p>\n

First, you have to love America.<\/b><\/p>\n

This isn’t a perfect country. I think it’s the best county; I’ve debated this with commenters before, and I’ll point out that while people worldwide tend to vote with their feet, there may be other (economic) attractions that pull them. But there are virtues here which far outweigh any sins. And I’ll start with the virtue of hope.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The hope of the immigrants, abandoning their farms and security for a new place here.<\/p>\n

The hope of the settlers, walking across Death Valley, burying their dead as they went.<\/p>\n

The hope of the ‘folks’ who moved to California after the war.<\/p>\n

The hope of the two Latino kids doing their Computer Science homework at Starbucks’.<\/p>\n

I love this country, my country, my people. And those who attack her…from guerilla cells, boardrooms, or their comfy chairs in expensive restaurants…better watch out.<\/p>\n

I don’t get a clear sense that my fellow liberals feel the same way. And if so, why should ‘the folks’ follow them? Why are we worthy of the support of a nation that we don’t support?<\/p>\n

So let me suggest an axiom for the New Model Democrats:<\/p>\n

America is a great goddamn country, and we’re both going to defend it from those who attack it and fight to make it better.<\/b><\/p>\n

And for everyone who is going to comment and remind me that ‘all liberals already do that’…no they don’t. Not when the Chancellor has to intervene at U.C.<\/span> Berkeley to get ‘permission’ for American flags to be flown and red-white-and-blue ribbons to be worn. Not when the strongest voices in liberalism give lip service to responding to an attack on our citizens on our soil.<\/p>\n

Loving this country isn’t the same thing as jingoism; it isn’t the same thing as imperialism; it isn’t the same thing as blind support of the worst traits of our government or our people.<\/p>\n

It starts with recognizing the best traits, and there are a hell of a lot of them.<\/p>\n

They were worth defending in my father’s time, and they are worth defending today.<\/p>\n

So thanks, veterans. Thanks soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen. Thanks for doing your jobs and I hope you all come home hale and whole, every one of you.<\/b><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the last 4 years, I’ve wrestled with lots of people over these issues. The issue of what it means to be a patriot – and a progressive one – is something I haven’t yet succeeded in getting onto the table of broader discussion. I think I need to work harder at that.<\/p>\n

I think the climate for that discussion is ripe. I think that in the coming year – between now and next Veteran’s Day – we will start to have those discussions in a more meaningful way. <\/p>\n

Part of that is because we will have to confront what love of country looks like in it’s most raw form, as the veterans of the current – and I’m afraid future – war in the Middle East muster out and rejoin society. In it’s most basic form, patriotism is about the debt we owe. <\/p>\n

When we talk about owing it to a country, or to a polity, it is an abstract debt. But we are going to start encountering people in our daily lives who will embody that debt – who have lived it, shed blood for it, bled for it themselves, and wept over those who died for it.<\/p>\n

They are the walking, breathing manifestations of our obligation to America.<\/p>\n

In my youth, when people showed contempt for veterans – what they were doing was attempting to repudiate the debt that they knew they owed to the country that had raised and succored them and that they didn’t want any more. <\/p>\n

It wasn’t about the veteran who was challenged, screamed at, spat upon. It was meant as a kind of political bankruptcy – a washing away of the debt owed for a safe childhood, for being well-fed, for the pile of presents under the tree. Owed for freedom to choose what kind of life to lead, from the fear of the tyrant’s club, from barbed wire. <\/p>\n

No one wants to owe for that. Many people see it as a birthright. <\/p>\n

But everybody does owe for it. And birthrights bring obligations.<\/p>\n

Grace Slick sang “I’d rather have my country die for me…” <\/p>\n

Somehow I don’t think that’s the kind of time we’re in right now. Somehow I think we’re on the other side of the valley that we descended into when the Airplane sang that song, and climbing back out.<\/p>\n

I think that veterans – in political office or in the cubicle next to yours – are going to be the catalyst for that climb. I think that the breadth of the embrace of veterans – while not as big as it should be – is also stretching our patriotism by making us look our obligations in the eyes and shake their hands. That’s easier and more widely accepted today than it was four years ago. <\/p>\n

I don’t think this bigger war is nearly over. I desperately hope I’m wrong. I think there will be many more veterans in the coming years. Most likely, one or more of my sons will be among them.<\/p>\n

I have a feeling all of us are going to have our debts to the country called, and we’ll have to sit down and write some (metaphorical) checks in the next decades.<\/p>\n

But I’m confident that we will, and that we will have what it takes to see them cashed.<\/p>\n

So today, if you know a veteran, look at them and realize that they are a marker – a marker of what we all owe. Thank them, honor them, buy them lunch or a beer. And do a gut check and see if you understand how much each of us truly owes America. I’ll bet you do.<\/p>\n

So thanks, veterans. Thanks soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen. Thanks for doing your jobs and I hope you all come home hale and whole, every one of you.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed Liberal on Veteran’s Day 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}