The Thanks They Get
In 1973, the year my older brother graduated from high school, the United States discontinued the draft, moving to an all-volunteer military force, ending mandatory conscription. However, the Selective Service System remains in place as a contingency plan; men between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to register so that a draft can be readily resumed if needed.
Had they not ended the draft, my brother and his buddies could have been called up. They worried over draft numbers, whether their number was high enough to keep them out of Viet Nam. My parents contemplated what they could do if he was drafted. With the right connections, they might have been able to get him into the Navy, stationed on some backwater supply boat. That’s the way people thought in those days.
Our all-volunteer military force actually has more prestige than the conscripted army did during the Sixties. Times have changed, the public has changed, and the military has changed. Well – sort of. Their slogans haven’t changed though.
I had the privilege of hosting the Veterans Day celebration in my office this year. I was sort of a one-gal army, writing the promo, posting the centralized flyers (we have four main offices and a host of satellite offices), writing my own speech and the executive message, and decorating the cafeteria. Whew!
We were told we couldn’t do the Pledge of Allegiance (or at least, it wouldn't be broadcast on the live feed), but to that mandate, I replied, “Nuts!” I found an employee military veteran willing to do the Pledge. He lost a leg in Viet Nam, and nearly lost the other one. I began the opening with the mottos from the five military branches:
• This we’ll defend (U.S. Army)
• Integrity First (U.S. Air Force)
• Honor, Courage, Commitment (U.S. Navy)
• Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) (U.S. Marines)
• Semper Paratus (Always Ready)
Then it was on with the region-wide live-feed show, hosted by one of the other offices. The theme was a Salute to Our Home-front Heroes. When it was over, we were allowed to continue with our own program. Being a musician and a patriotic music-lover, I was hoping to have one of our official singers perform the National Anthem. But alas, one had laryngitis and the other was conscripted to customer service duty for the entire day. No passes!
Playing with the idea of leading the National Anthem myself, or perhaps the much-easier God Bless America, I passed on the notion of making a fool of myself. I can carry a tune as long as I don’t have to carry it too far. However, singing the Star Spangled Banner is more like climbing a mountain than singing a song. If you’re not careful, you can fall off the edge into an abyss. Or bring a shrieking avalanche down upon yourself.
Still, I wanted to do something patriotic and familiar. Finally, I settled on Washington’s Farewell Address, which was available in a biography I happened to have on hand of the First President. There was one section, in particular, that honors the sacrifices our veterans have made and the thing for which they have made those sacrifices: liberty.
• Pres. George Washington’s Farewell Address was not a speech to the Colonial troops.
• In fact, it was not a speech at all but a letter addressed to the American people, published in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser on Sept. 19, 1796, originally entitled, “’The Address of General Washington To The People of The United States on his declining of the Presidency of the United States."
• Other newspapers immediately reprinted it, and shortened the title to “Washington’s Farewell Address.”
• Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City on Dec. 4, 1783, nine days after the Revolutionary War ended.
• Washington's popularity was great at the end of the Revolution and he had been urged to seize control of the government and establish a military regime.
• Instead, he publicly bid farewell to his troops at Fraunces Tavern and resigned as commander-in-chief at Annapolis, thus ensuring that the new United States government would not be a military dictatorship.
• Washington’s Farewell Address was to the people of the United States, after he had finished his second, and what he wanted to be, his last term as President. He had served his country for 45 years and longed to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon.
• Following is a brief excerpt of the letter:
• “In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgement of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me, for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me.
• And for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment by services faith and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal.
• If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that, admidst vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations not infrequently want of Success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected.
• I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that your union and brother affection may be perpetual, that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its administration may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, affection, and adoption of every nation yet a stranger to it.
• Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
• The unity of government which constitutes you one people is justly dear to you; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty which you so highly prize.
• But as it is easy to see, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external foes will be most constantly and actively directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think of it as a sacred object of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest that it can, in any event, be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon every attempt to alienate any portion of your country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
• Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same love of God, manners, habits, and principles. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and efforts; of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
I had to edit Washington a little bit so that my audience would understand what this 18th Century leader was saying. I’m not certain how wise and virtuous our present government is, considering that in this past election they refused to count the ballots of those who have been willing to risk their lives to insure that we continue to enjoy that freedom and that those who live in countries that are strangers to freedom might one day enjoy those very same rights.
God bless our military veterans. God bless the America they defend.
Had they not ended the draft, my brother and his buddies could have been called up. They worried over draft numbers, whether their number was high enough to keep them out of Viet Nam. My parents contemplated what they could do if he was drafted. With the right connections, they might have been able to get him into the Navy, stationed on some backwater supply boat. That’s the way people thought in those days.
Our all-volunteer military force actually has more prestige than the conscripted army did during the Sixties. Times have changed, the public has changed, and the military has changed. Well – sort of. Their slogans haven’t changed though.
I had the privilege of hosting the Veterans Day celebration in my office this year. I was sort of a one-gal army, writing the promo, posting the centralized flyers (we have four main offices and a host of satellite offices), writing my own speech and the executive message, and decorating the cafeteria. Whew!
We were told we couldn’t do the Pledge of Allegiance (or at least, it wouldn't be broadcast on the live feed), but to that mandate, I replied, “Nuts!” I found an employee military veteran willing to do the Pledge. He lost a leg in Viet Nam, and nearly lost the other one. I began the opening with the mottos from the five military branches:
• This we’ll defend (U.S. Army)
• Integrity First (U.S. Air Force)
• Honor, Courage, Commitment (U.S. Navy)
• Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) (U.S. Marines)
• Semper Paratus (Always Ready)
Then it was on with the region-wide live-feed show, hosted by one of the other offices. The theme was a Salute to Our Home-front Heroes. When it was over, we were allowed to continue with our own program. Being a musician and a patriotic music-lover, I was hoping to have one of our official singers perform the National Anthem. But alas, one had laryngitis and the other was conscripted to customer service duty for the entire day. No passes!
Playing with the idea of leading the National Anthem myself, or perhaps the much-easier God Bless America, I passed on the notion of making a fool of myself. I can carry a tune as long as I don’t have to carry it too far. However, singing the Star Spangled Banner is more like climbing a mountain than singing a song. If you’re not careful, you can fall off the edge into an abyss. Or bring a shrieking avalanche down upon yourself.
Still, I wanted to do something patriotic and familiar. Finally, I settled on Washington’s Farewell Address, which was available in a biography I happened to have on hand of the First President. There was one section, in particular, that honors the sacrifices our veterans have made and the thing for which they have made those sacrifices: liberty.
• Pres. George Washington’s Farewell Address was not a speech to the Colonial troops.
• In fact, it was not a speech at all but a letter addressed to the American people, published in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser on Sept. 19, 1796, originally entitled, “’The Address of General Washington To The People of The United States on his declining of the Presidency of the United States."
• Other newspapers immediately reprinted it, and shortened the title to “Washington’s Farewell Address.”
• Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City on Dec. 4, 1783, nine days after the Revolutionary War ended.
• Washington's popularity was great at the end of the Revolution and he had been urged to seize control of the government and establish a military regime.
• Instead, he publicly bid farewell to his troops at Fraunces Tavern and resigned as commander-in-chief at Annapolis, thus ensuring that the new United States government would not be a military dictatorship.
• Washington’s Farewell Address was to the people of the United States, after he had finished his second, and what he wanted to be, his last term as President. He had served his country for 45 years and longed to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon.
• Following is a brief excerpt of the letter:
• “In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgement of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me, for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me.
• And for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment by services faith and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal.
• If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that, admidst vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations not infrequently want of Success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected.
• I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that your union and brother affection may be perpetual, that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its administration may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, affection, and adoption of every nation yet a stranger to it.
• Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
• The unity of government which constitutes you one people is justly dear to you; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty which you so highly prize.
• But as it is easy to see, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external foes will be most constantly and actively directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think of it as a sacred object of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest that it can, in any event, be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon every attempt to alienate any portion of your country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
• Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same love of God, manners, habits, and principles. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and efforts; of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
I had to edit Washington a little bit so that my audience would understand what this 18th Century leader was saying. I’m not certain how wise and virtuous our present government is, considering that in this past election they refused to count the ballots of those who have been willing to risk their lives to insure that we continue to enjoy that freedom and that those who live in countries that are strangers to freedom might one day enjoy those very same rights.
God bless our military veterans. God bless the America they defend.
posted by Belle | 4:55 PM
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