Some Thoughts on Freedom this Memorial Day

Freedom is a word I rarely use without thinking . . . of the time . . . when I’ve been loved. (Donovan Leitch)

He’s the universal soldier and he really is to blame, his orders come from far away no more. (Buffy Saint Marie)

Dozens of times over the past several days I’ve been reminded on social media, the radio, and TV news to take a moment to honor our fallen heroes who have sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom. None of us wants to ever forget the loved ones we’ve lost, especially those taken at a young age, and especially those who have given their lives answering what they believed, and is generally accepted to be a higher calling to serve the greater good. My father enlisted in the Marines at the start of World War II and came back to the United States as a hero in the eyes of virtually every one in this country. Few would disagree that Nazi Germany and the Axis powers it formed with Italy and Japan needed to be defeated, and the greatest strategic minds at the time could come up with no better way to do so than through war. Although my father did not like talking about his WWII experience, and I’m sure he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy as a result of injuries he sustained, I was proud to show my friends his pictures in uniform, and he was most assuredly pleased that he had served. We are all exceedingly grateful that Hitler was defeated and that the world is mostly rid of Fascism and Nazism.

The freedom that was protected and ultimately preserved through the Allied victory in World War II was clearly understood. Today the word “freedom” is tossed about as though everyone in America knows what it is and agrees as to its meaning. In reality, I think there is little consensus around its definition anymore. Many people are able to maintain their sense of freedom only by keeping others less free. Powerful people use the term to manipulate those they control to carry out their will toward an end that only serves the interests of the powerful. The freedom our young men and women have sacrificed to protect through military service since 1945 has become increasingly vague.

I don’t know much about the Korean War, but I was of draft age during the height of the Vietnam War. Initially I had a student deferment, but when my college credits dropped below the minimum requirement I was called for a physical. Because I’d had knee surgery two years earlier and was in need or a second surgery I received a temporary medical deferment. This was a little confusing to me since I was able to surf, hike, ride a bike, and do most other things without difficulty. But my knee did click when I bent it and it was unstable at times. By the time my deferment was up the lottery had been instituted and I received a high enough number that I was never called up. Even today when I talk to friends and acquaintances who were drafted I feel a little guilty for not having served, although I was firmly convinced the war was immoral and I don’t know what I would have done if I had actually been drafted. Many friends at the time who were facing the draft enlisted in either the Air Force or the Navy because they thought their chances of being forced into direct combat would be lower. This was such a contrast to World War II, where, as I have been led to believe, every able young man was eager to put on a uniform, grab a gun, and join the cause.

Sadly, Vietnam veterans returning to the United States after serving did not receive the hero’s welcome that greeted returning WWII vets. The anger and resentment toward the government for the perpetuation and escalation of a war that much of the public saw as unjustified to begin with was mistakenly directed at the returning soldiers. News accounts of events such as the My Lai Massacre and the indiscriminate napalm bombing of civilian villages helped to vilify soldiers in the public eye, but in reality, if the Vietnam war was unjust, then teenaged boys forced to fight that war were victims, just as were the citizens of North and South Vietnam. I’m told soldiers who did not carry out orders in the field could be executed on the spot. The war was hugely unpopular and divided our country along political lines, largely due to how well (and accurately, I believe) it was covered by the media. Every night we saw what was going on, and unlike Hitler, there was no clear cut enemy, only a remote, poorly understood country loosely divided over differing economic, political, and religious views.

Since Vietnam the United States has engaged in the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan. The Gulf War lasted barely more than a month, and ended when a coalition of US, Saudi, Egyptian, and British troops decisively expelled invading Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The Iraq War was initiated in March, 2003 after George W. Bush was misled (by his Secretary of State Dick Cheney, among others) into believing that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and the false belief that Iraq was harboring and supporting Al Qaeda, the group responsible for the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. In May of 2003 George W. Bush, perhaps a bit arrogant over the easy accomplishment of military objectives in the Gulf War, declared mission accomplished in the Iraq War, but in reality, after no weapons of mass destruction were found, after Saddam Hussein was executed, and after chaos erupted in Iraq, the war dragged on with primary United States involvement until Barack Obama completed a troop withdrawal eight years later in December of 2011. The War in Afghanistan began in 2001, predating the Iraq War, and continues today. It began as a United States-led effort to drive the Taliban, who were believed to be providing Al Qaeda a safe base of operations, from Afghanistan. Since then American troops have supported the Afghan Armed Forces and their allies in holding Taliban insurgents at bay.

We praise soldiers, and especially fallen soldiers, for sacrificing to defend our freedom. This was clearly true in World War II. They were not only defending our freedom but England and France had been invaded and millions of Jews across Europe were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. We don’t need to look very far to see an unambiguous definition of freedom. Since then things have gotten a little more cloudy. I have become fond of repeating the cliche, “One person’s freedom is another’s oppression.” I don’t know where I first heard it, but I can think of many examples where it is true. Southern plantation owners were free to enjoy a life of wealth and leisure because of slavery. Corporate executives receive salaries in the top 1/10 of the top 1% because they support politicians who enact legislation against unions and won’t increase the minimum wage. Those who own shares in medical insurance companies see their investments continue to rise because the people covered under the plans they own part of have to pay out of pocket for treatments and procedures that would be benefits under a single payer system. People lucky enough to own investment properties benefit from being able to collect rent from those not wealthy enough to own their own homes. The right to own firearms for sport and protection on the one hand leads to preventable murders and mass shootings on the other. These are only a few examples.

I was told as an elementary school student that communism was evil because the Soviet Union did not respect freedom of religion (they were Godless) and there was only one source of news which was controlled by the government, and it was called propaganda. There was no freedom of the press. So growing up I believed that freedom meant knowing that news sources were honest and independent, and I could believe and practice my own beliefs, and the the government would not be associated with or interfere with the public’s diverse beliefs. We needed to fight communism to defend freedom of religion and freedom of the press. Of course, free enterprise went without saying, since a communistic government controlled the means of production and distribution, preventing ambitious and imaginative people from starting their own businesses or making money in ways they devised for themselves.

I think there is evidence now that the freedom our government wants our young women and men to defend is the freedom to drive fossil fuel powered cars as cheaply as possible. Lurking behind the cultural and religious conflicts in the middle east is a struggle for control of petroleum resources. The fact that Muslims control the greatest petroleum deposits in the world makes it easy to bring religion into the conflict, and the fact that Jerusalem is a sacred site to evangelicals, and Jerusalem sits in Israel, which is in conflict with the Arab world, makes it convenient for clever right wing United States political leaders to manipulate evangelicals to support their economic interests, leading them to think that it is a righteous predestined Biblical calling. Bringing in a sophisticated misinformation network that understands this relationship to feed the beliefs of the evangelicals while discrediting the legitimate, independent, reputable news sources creates a perfect triumvirate of greed, superstition, and deception within my own United States of America that replicates all that I was warned about regarding the Soviet Union when I was in elementary school. Add the fact that free enterprise has been suppressed by a handful of giant monopolies in the United States and the result is that the freedoms of religion, the press, and open markets that we enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s are severely threatened today.

So, I want to offer a deep and heart-felt thank you to all the veterans who have served to protect my, your, and their freedom, no matter how each of us might define it. And just as as my heart breaks every day for those I have loved and lost, my heart goes out to all who have lost loved ones in service to our country, recognizing that we all serve our country in one way or another. But just as important as military service is, we must always think about what freedom really means. If we use that word without understanding it, then we are using it in vain. And if we are serving our country without peace being our ultimate goal, then we are not defending anybody’s freedom. We are all heroes when we work to ensure that all Americans have the right to vote, the right to be free from religion as well as the right to practice the religion of our choice, the right to receive information from a free, honest and open press, and the right to enjoy economic opportunity free from the oppressive influences of giant corporations.