Some thoughts about Veterans Day

I am a veteran, but I am uncomfortable with the level of deference given to veterans.

This week, I attended my daughter’s school’s Veterans Day commemoration. During the activities, there was a reading of this poem by Charles M. Province:

“It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.”
[Source]

I argue that it is improper to credit soldiers for these rights.

Was it really the soldier who gave us the right to vote? No. The right to vote was extended, state by state, to all [white] males through a series of state laws between 1820 and 1856. [Source]

The same with women -- there was not a single soldier who died to pass the 19th Amendment in 1920. To the extent that anyone deserves credit for the right to vote, it is indeed the politician.

Similarly, we should not credit soldiers for giving us the freedoms espoused in the First Amendment –religion, press, speech, and protest. Those rights were only enshrined in 1791, when the Bill of Rights was ratified – eight years after the Treaty of Paris formalized our independence. [Source]

So it was not the soldier who secured those rights. Rather, it was the citizenry of the necessary three-fourths of the states at the time.

And to the extent that someone receives a fair trial, it is not because of a soldier. Rather, it is because we separated our judiciary from our legislative and executive branches. As Anthony Scalia identified, that’s a key element of the Constitution -- one that Enlightenment-era politicians developed as delegates of the Constitutional Convention.

Now, there is an argument that it was the soldier who secured the independence necessary to enable those rights, but that is not necessarily the case. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia enjoy similar rights despite not having risen up in rebellion. [Source]

And while we may talk about existential threats to the country, reality is less threatening than the rhetoric. So again, the credit for our rights simply cannot go to the soldier. It must go to someone else.

Yes, we soldiers who have served beneath the flag will have our coffins will be draped by it, but your ability to burn the flag is not because of us.

I would argue that you have your rights because you will not stand for anything less, because you will not suffer elected officials who abuse you, and because you control the money by which the government functions.

And so, to the extent that gratitude is deserved, It is *I* who should thank *you.*