Retaking Veteran's Day
By Mickey Z
Saturday, 10 November 2007
In a society where "support the troops" is little more than a euphemism for "support the policy," the concept of setting aside a day to celebrate military veterans has always been touchy for the Left. But here's an idea: what if we instead honored veterans of the anti-war movement?
I mean those-- from Eugene Debs and Helen Keller to the Berrigans, right up to Cindy Sheehan--who put their ass on the line to stop war...not wage it. To add a twist, how about military veterans who have since become veterans of the anti-war movement, e.g. Howard Zinn, Stan Goff, Ward Churchill, and Rosemarie Jackowski?
Even better, if you truly want to acknowledge bravery in the line of fire, why not find more heroes like Hugh Clowers Thompson, Jr.?
Thompson arrived in Vietnam on December 27, 1967 and quickly earned a reputation as "an exceptional (helicopter) pilot who took danger in his stride." In their book, "Four Hours at My Lai," Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim also describe Thompson as a "very moral man. He was absolutely strict about opening fire only on clearly defined targets." On the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson's sense of virtue would be put to the test.
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