Every Nov. 11, the pomp and circumstance of American patriotism arrives in full and resounding force. Newspapers are littered with tales of heroism and humility, HDTV screens show just how billowing and majestic an American flag can look with the right gust of wind behind it and public spaces across the country are coated in a healthy dusting of camouflage, red, white and blue.
If the Fourth of July is the national holiday when we, at least in theory, honor the day of our independence, remember American statesmen whose characters and foresight seem almost mythic and messianic today and flaunt the particularly American brand of freedom, then Veterans Day is a sort of “day of attribution.” We honor and praise those who we feel provide the service that continues to make our freedom possible.
In a way, the armed forces, or at least the soldiers, sailors, pilots and service people who we so closely identify with, have become almost synonymous with the entire American brand of freedom. In other words, our armed forces often serve as the ideal model of what makes our freedom possible and as reminders of what keeps that freedom afloat.
It’s hard to tell what we exactly mean when we say that our veterans are “freedom fighters,” but the imprecise and often high-winded language we use to honor and praise most of our national institutions and the principles that those institutions are supposed to safeguard probably lends to this state of affairs. Ask Americans to define freedom, and you’ll maybe get 300 million different answers. We don’t try to define it, but we try to identify it when we see it and try to praise those who we feel keep it alive.
But is freedom an export, or something that is instead coveted by our citizens and, by extension, our veterans and current military personnel? Could calling someone a “freedom fighter” mean that they risk their lives fighting for their own definition of freedom, or for the packaged, shined, buffed and malleable definition of freedom that is defined by our government?
Whatever constitutes the freedom that our veterans and current armed forces personnel represent and fight for, the point is that they have the unyielding mandate to defend that notion of freedom. When fighting for American security and freedom was defined as fighting the axis powers of Europe and Asia in World War II, the American armed forces were called upon to fight and die for that cause. When preserving American security and freedom meant, almost vicariously, building and preserving Iraqi and Afghani freedom, again the American armed forces and our veterans were called upon to do the job.
My point, (and I promise I have a point), is this: our armed forces are subject to our definition of freedom and security. They are “freedom fighters” because they are subject to the whims and definitions of what the American public, and mostly the U.S. government, defines as preserving, protecting, spreading and safeguarding freedom. And perhaps the greatest service that is provided by our veterans and current military personnel is the indefatigable and uncompromising commitment they have made to perform and act on our country’s behalf when we ask them to.
But this puts an equal burden and duty on those that remain behind the front lines. If our armed forces and veterans act in accordance with what we define as preserving and protecting our freedom and security, then we must make responsible, informed and reasonable decisions about what that freedom is and what actions or inactions will help it flourish. We must define “fighting for freedom” as what is in our veterans’ and citizens’ best interest, rather than what is in our governments or corporations best interest. We must improve veteran’s services and military hospitals and help to provide access to psychological treatment and care. And we should make Nov. 12 feel a lot more like Nov. 11.
It is almost always the decisions at the top that subject our armed forces to the duties and orders that they are expected to carry out. To honor our veterans does not have to mean that we are promoting the militarization of our culture or defending the poor decisions and dangerous rational that have sent our troops into harm’s way.
Honoring our veterans can also mean having a more responsible, reserved and informed definition of what freedom and security means. Our veterans and current service personnel deserve to be honored and treated with respect. But they also deserve to be labeled as “freedom fighters” for responsible and just reasons. And perhaps the greatest service that we can provide to our armed forces is to truly think about why and for what reasons we send them into harm’s way and to give them the care they deserve when they return.
