128. Veterans

            I am not a veteran. When I finished high school, I considered the military briefly but it made no sense to me because we were not involved in any conflicts, so I chose to go to college and become a teacher. I have no regrets in my choice. I love my students and they make me proud every day. (They also are able to embarrass me every day…) I am especially proud of those students who have chosen to serve our country through the military. I am also quite proud of my father and the many other family members I have who have served in the military.

            My dad was a paratrooper in the army during the 60’s and he was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina when I was a young child. That’s why I lived in North Carolina as a kid and why I so early on had a love for the English language and how varied it could be. My father’s dad, my grandpa, fought in World War I and was gassed. He fought emphysema his entire life from the war forward and it finally killed him, though I do think he also worked against his own health by smoking. (Who didn’t smoke?)

            Now over the past 35 years of my teaching career I have had several students join the military, some even choosing it as a lifelong career. They have protected our interests and our freedoms and they have promoted the American ideals. I’m not going to say that there haven’t been times when we, as a nation, have gotten that wrong sometimes. I also wish I could say I have never lost a student to military action, but I can’t. The most painful aspect of that loss is the fact that the young man I lost to war fought in an Allied cause serving Her Majesties’ Forces from the United Kingdom. His parents’ grief was intense and raw because they felt they had lost their son to an unnecessary American military conflict in Iraq. I share in that grief. But it does not lessen my pride for the American military men and women and our allies who have served for the promotion of liberty and justice.

            I don’t wish death on anyone, even those who would be considered enemies (least of all now during a pandemic) and I choose to promote liberty and justice and the American ideals through education and political action. But I am so very proud of those who choose through the military to support us in our quest to live free. I am so very proud of those who have died in service to that cause, especially my young friend and former student in England, Daniel Coffee. May he rest in peace.