Honoring Veterans and Working for Peace

Nathaniel Brooks and Stephen Edington, November 13, 2011

Reverend Steve Edington asked Nathaniel Brooks to share some of his thoughts on being a veteran of World War II and a strong peace advocate for most of his life. At 93, Nathaniel also has the distinction of being our oldest member. Steve has some closing words at the end of Nathaniel's remarks.

November 11 was set aside to honor those who served in our nation's wars. The date commemorates Armistice Day when, in 1918, the guns went quiet to end WW1. I was merely five months old then but WW1 had already played an important part in my life. The war had begun in 1914 and for the next three years Americans debated whether to get into it. At a rally opposing entry, my mother and father first met and lo, I am here. But despite the opposition, the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Wilson calling it "the war to end wars".

In my later childhood I came to understand that the war had been simply a contest for dominance in Europe, no more moral than a gang war; and how bloody it was - of 65 million combatants 37 million were killed or wounded. This knowledge first shaped my feelings about war, and those feelings were confirmed by subsequent wars in the 1930's. I learned to be skeptical about declarations by governments and to question the motives of their power elites. So for some years I joined with other students to work for peace.

Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor! Two weeks later I volunteered to serve in the Army. At that point, I thought it was a necessary war and to be true to myself I should get in promptly. Along with 16 million others I served in the Armed Forces until 1946.

Now, as a veteran, a UU and an old man who has seen much, I would like to share some thoughts with you as we consider Veterans Day 2011.

A bit of history - Armistice Day, whose message was primarily "promote peace so we never have war again," was renamed as Veterans Day in 1954, a time of Cold War, and honoring military service became the central theme.

We, in the national organization Veterans for Peace say: thanks for honoring those who served and honor them further by working to end wars. Unfortunately the holiday is sometimes misused to glorify militarism and war. Politicians say words like "our heroes who have kept us free and safe." In my view none of this statement is true. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were no threat to our safety; wartimes made us less free and our soldiers are not heroes - not for lack of bravery, many are very brave, but because the task they were assigned and required to carry out is evil and ugly, not heroic. I don't fault the soldiers, indeed I deeply care for their well-being. But I am angry with those who sent them to kill and perhaps be killed - and then employ flowery phrases to mask their guilt and entice a new crop of young people.

We have been told that American troops will return from Iraq "with their heads held high, proud of their success..." Heads held high? Yes, they will be happy to be home and we hope they are well. Many of the soldiers who already returned have had severe and sometimes crippling injuries. It is estimated that half of them have brain injuries or are suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. They come home to find a depressed economy with few jobs available. So I say "We sent them and now we owe them the best care and support we can provide."

Proud of their success? In what ways did the invasion of Iraq succeed? For no reason that can stand the light of day, that country, that people, was torn apart and heavily destroyed. Considering our most basic UU value, "The inherent worth and dignity of every person", war is the greatest obscenity and an intolerable offense to morality.

So where does one begin? To bring change to any established way of doing things it is important to understand who benefits from the status quo and who loses by it.

So who benefits from our wars? Clearly, the corporations that provide the war materials and services; and also multinational corporations that gain favored access to foreign markets, cheap labor and natural resources (oil for example).

On the other hand, what does it mean for our general population - the 99 percent? Sons and daughters sent to war; deaths, injuries and long-term health problems; and taxpayer costs in the trillions for wartime and after-war costs. While some jobs are created to meet military requirements, economists say that if the same dollars were spent on peacetime needs, considerably more jobs could be created. More importantly, while dollars spent on war are blown up or otherwise wasted, they could instead be used to improve our economy and quality of life through renewable energy, clean air and water, high-speed rail, well-equipped schools and more. Instead of such advances, war costs increase the deficit and create pressure to cut spending on social needs.

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates retired in June he said we need to decide "what is the kind of role the American people - accustomed to unquestioned military dominance - want their country to play in the world"? A good question!

Do we want to continue maintaining and expanding an empire; spending as much on our military as all the other nations of the world combined; manning hundreds of bases around the world; viewing ourselves as the ultimate judge and police in international relations?

Recently we see new forms of warfare - drones, preventive assassinations, so-called "humanitarian" wars; what do we think about these? How to deal with the lurking dangers posed by nuclear weapons and the possible militarization of Space also challenges us. In our congregation we should create opportunities to learn and talk together about such complex and urgent questions.

And very importantly, we need to talk with our youth, who are the prime target of militarists and also our best hope for new thinking and change. Help them to think about bravery, heroism, patriotism - how these qualities may be expressed in times of peace, and how they are distorted in wartime

People ask: can we hope for a more peaceful future? I believe we can because human beings are intelligent, and if they are not swept away with manufactured fears they will increasingly come to realize that war is not the answer - and for a real danger they will seek every reasonable course other than military conflict.

A greater readiness to challenge war emerged during the Vietnam War, when popular opposition reached unprecedented levels. For decades following, Washington spoke of "the Vietnam syndrome" as though the people's unwillingness to start another war was an illness.

More recently, while the American public was misled, there were massive demonstrations around the world opposing an invasion of Iraq.

Today the majority of Americans want out of the current wars.

The ultimate goal of abolishing war may seem beyond reason. Consider however, that slavery, which was part of human existence for thousands of years, was eventually declared intolerable. And while there are still occasional examples of people being enslaved, they are considered a violation - not just of international law - but of human morality. The same is true of chemical warfare and I think torture and then capital punishment will follow in this century.

I may be too optimistic but as our minister might say - "So may it be!"

Nathaniel Brooks, November 13, 2011

Rev. Edington's closing remarks

I want to thank Nathaniel for his very fine words. I have just a few thoughts of my own to add before we close for today.

During the Second World War the poet and playwright, Archibald MacLeish was working for the Library of Congress. He was asked to write a poem for a ceremony the Library of Congress was planning to hold to honor the lives of those on its staff who had been killed in action in that conflict - one in which Nathaniel served, as did my father and one of my uncles, both now deceased. I won't read the whole poem but there is a piece of I find myself coming back to. I'll share just a few lines:

They say, we were young; we have died; remember us...They say, our deaths are not ours, they are yours, they will mean what you make them...They say, whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say. It is you who must say this.

I think we should take the late Mr. MacLeish's words and challenge to heart: How do we give meaning to lives lost in war? I should say, wars - plural. Wars fought, in the case of WWII to check the rise of fascism when all other means had failed; as well as wars fought for far less compelling reasons in which, as Nathaniel indicated, the safety, the security and the well being of our country did not stand or fall on their outcome - as it did in the Second World War. And yet, we think of the human lives lost in all those conflicts, as well as those who survived them but who came home, and who are still coming home, grievously wounded or emotionally traumatized. How do we take up MacLeish's call to give meaning to these lives, to all of these lives?

Yes, we truly honor and respect those lives, whatever the circumstances under which they were lost or diminished. And can we also take from them some hard, but necessary lessons? Can we take from these lost lives a renewed commitment to be ever more vigilant and ever more discerning whenever the drums of war begin to roll, as they inevitably and periodically do. Can we be the voices that call us back from the brink and say: Wait, is there a better way to deal with whatever the issue may be? Do we need to once again put young lives in harm's way if there is no terribly compelling need to put them there? I do not say this as a pacifist, but rather as a citizen of this nation and of the global community in which we all live, who believes that armed conflict should be the absolute last resort when all other means of resolution have been exhausted, and when no other alternative exists. If enough of us, I feel, can see our country and our world through this lens, we will give meaning to the lives of those who have fallen.

Bob Dylan said it some 50 years ago in words we heard the choir sing earlier. And he's certainly not the only one: "How many deaths will it take 'till (we know) that too many people have died." I love the song. It is the anthem of my generation. But I hope that the answer is not just blowing in the wind. I hope the answer is also in the hearts and minds of peace loving people everywhere who will pause and think and speak and act so that the young men and women of coming generations will be able to serve our nation and our world to the fullness of their days rather than having their lives cut short in yet another war fought for yet another less than compelling reason.

So that's it as I see it on this Veterans Day and Armistice Day weekend: Honor the lives of those who have served, thank them for their service, remember the lives lost, and rededicate our efforts to building a redeemed, reconciled, and peaceful world.

Stephen Edington, November 13, 2011