America loves its men in uniform. Policemen and firefighters who responded to 9/11 in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were celebrated as heroes, as many of them truly were. A generation later, members of the American military — even those who fought a war in the wrong country without ever questioning it — are given preferential boarding, preferential hiring, healthcare, paid leave, and state and municipal stipends. Laws in some states place a greater value on a policeman’s life than on an ordinary citizen. State and federal laws criminalize false claims of having received military honors. Even among those who question American wars most fiercely you hear the familiar “thank you for your service.”
Americans have decided that only a very limited (and mainly weapon-carrying) minority of American “workers” are worthy of our praise. When we attend professional sports events we find them running out on the field in fatigues along with the military flyover. It has become so common for an on-leave service member to surprise his son or daughter at a high school sports event or graduation ceremony that the President of the United States staged one of these heart-warming reunions at his last State of the Union address. Cash and spectacle are rewards for those who do the bidding of the defense industry without asking too many questions.
But America has real heroes — and they have been right under our noses all along.
The global pandemic we find ourselves in today has made it crystal clear that those who continue to deliver the mail, pick up the trash, show up for work at supermarkets, staff the help lines, deliver pizza to the door, care for the sick, keep making meals for school children, look in on their elderly neighbors — we/you are just as integral to the functioning of society as those we have chosen to police us and surround our borders with missiles and barbed wire.
To all Americans now being guided by their better angels, to all who look out for their neighbor, care what kind of world we live in, and to all who put their health on the line during this extraordinary crisis:
Thank you for your service.
Comments are closed.