"Hey, I fought for the rights and freedoms you enjoy!"
Those of us who, may I say, dare to protest against military action, or
in other words, sanctioned mass murder abroad have heard these word
spewing from the orifices of former veterans or, more often it seems,
would-be veterans or once ROTCies. In fact, I often find myself
standing in solidarity with true veterans when such a statement is
uttered.
It is time for us to reclaim this statement as our own, for the truth
of the matter is that it has been the peoples of these United States of
America, who have fought for those rights, liberties and what little
equality we enjoy.
When free speech was a privilege of the few, it was workers, in fact,
Wobblies who fought the tireless battles on the public podium for the
right of free speech. The armed forces were not there....
When freedom was a privilege based on the color of one's skin, it was
the abolitionists and the underground railroad who took up the fight.
And despite an internecine war, that freedom was only won many a decade
later when freedom road fighters, the Southern Church and others fought
on the ground and won black liberation. The armed forces were not
there....
When suffrage was a right based on a person's worth and sex, it was a
long battle by the people to win those rights for each and every
citizen. The armed forces....(well, you know).
While native American Indians were being systematically slaughtered,
corralled into reservations, forced into abject poverty, many stood up
alongside their brothers and sisters. To this day the situation on
many reservations is one that our nation should be so ashamed of.
Nonetheless, it has been the people, black, red, white and brown who
have been the one doing the fighting for these rights, not the armed
forces.
The 8-hour day, work standards, minimum wage, social security, the
right to strike, all these and many other rights and liberties enjoyed
by people today have been the fruit of a continual and tireless
struggle on the part of the working people against the capitalists, the
bosses, the owners. The latter have used the armed forces or hired
thugs to prevent us from gaining these rights. These are the owners of
the media and purveyors over educational institutions that are designed
to instill in us a belief that it has been through their benevolence
that these privileges have been granted to us and that the United
States armed forces have done the fighting for us. The truth, however,
is that it has always been the people who have been the soldiers and
the casualties. It is the people who have proven themselves the
bravest, the proudest.
So, the next time someone soliloquizes to you and tells you were you
can go, I would advise one of three approaches:
The sarcastic retort: "What? You were in the Union Army?"
The educated reply: see above.
Or just smile and know that you stand in a tradition of those who have
truly bettered humankind.
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