Home of the brave
We’d do well to remember freedom isn’t free
by Regan White
regan@thecharlotteweekly.com

And yet, it has never really failed to escape my attention that on a holiday that is meant to honor our country’s countless war veterans, most of us are indeed poolside, eating hot dogs and apple pie, detonating fireworks and watching children catch fireflies in mason jars. There’s nothing wrong with it, really. These are American pursuits after all, and veterans have fought for hundreds of years to defend this country and its freedoms, not the least of which include the right to blissfully grill cheeseburgers with a cooler full of cold ones at our feet.

Sacrifice taken personally
What is most troublesome to me is that the sacrifices made by so many are by and large lost on those who are not personally affected. And it’s worse now more than ever. We are at war. We have been at war for four years. And yet unless you have a loved one fighting in the war, as far as I can tell, that fact is pretty easy to forget.

Every political view aside, this should not be. It shouldn’t be possible to forget that your country is at war. The American people should have to sacrifice more to support our troops who sacrifice so much – whatever the cause.

The wounded Iraq war veterans from the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, whom I interviewed last week, spoke highly of the support they’ve received from the American public. They stressed that regardless of political points-of-view, in their experience, most Americans proudly support the troops and are grateful for their service.

That’s great. But it’s simply not enough. Most Americans, myself included, should not have to turn to Google to recall exactly when the war started. We shouldn’t have to resort to media outlets for examples of the war’s human toll. We shouldn’t have to be reminded that even if the war ended tomorrow, our war veterans will need our support for decades to come.

Step up, send something
In wars gone by, automobile manufacturing plants stopped making cars and started making weapons, tanks and planes. In war time, food was rationed. Women knitted blankets, socks and hats for the troops. Women’s guilds met and stitched quilts for servicemen. Would Joe Blow American think about the war a bit more if his food was rationed and he had to knit a pair of socks every week for a soldier? You bet your bonnet he would.

Times have changed for sure, and one must, of course, keep an eye on practicality. No service member in the desert wants a pair of wool hand-knit socks, that’s for sure. But do they want care packages like the ones put together by Treats for Troops (Treatsfortroops.com), Operation Gratitude (Opgratitude.com) and Operation Shoebox? Of course they do!

Last week when I talked to Doug Szczepanski Jr., a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran who suffered extensive injuries from a suicide car bomber, he spoke warmly about the care packages he received while serving overseas. Here is a kid who used humor to deflect his nine-month experience training the Iraq police force in eastern Baghdad, a term of duty which resulted in his face and fingers being blown off, leaving him disfigured, blind in his left eye and covered in third-degree burns. And yet when he mentioned the care packages, his voice softened around the edges. I could hear over the phone the crinkle of his smile as he recounted how homemade cookies were his favorite before simply saying, “I enjoyed receiving anything from home, really.”

Unequal sacrifice
Care packages aside, there are other ways I wish Americans would be reminded of the war. Not just to prove a priggish point but because it’s not OK for a select few to stand on the frontlines of the battlefield without the majority feeling the effects. If Americans had to give up cigarettes, ice cream and reality TV to support the war effort, would we be more mindful? I think so.

Now, would giving up cigarettes, ice cream and reality TV in any way help the troops? Not really, except that they might return home feeling like all the rest of us made some impressionable sacrifices as well.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in Baghdad right now. I can’t say I can even fathom what it must be like to pick up the pieces of a fallen comrade. But I can imagine that if I had been at war and seen unspeakable horrors, I wouldn’t be too pleased to return home to a country that has gone on hunky-dory without me – cigarettes, ice cream, reality TV and all. Post-traumatic stress disorder wouldn’t even begin to cover how I’d feel. And that’s if I returned at all. Don’t even get me started about how I’d feel as the loved one of a service member.

Cure apathy
Is it anyone’s fault in particular? No. Am I saying the American public is horrible? Not at all. I’m simply saying we should try a bit more.

A friend of mine is heavily involved in fund-raising and charity efforts. He frequently waxes eloquent about how we may not be able to cure a certain disease or situation, but we certainly can cure apathy. That phrase comes to mind here as I bask in the glow of a blissful Memorial Day.

We can’t change that we are at war. It is not intentional that we’ve become lulled into complacency by reports that largely have remained the same for four years – a handful of service members killed here, a handful there – a sizable number in total, broken down into bite-sized daily updates steeped in political agendas.

What we can help is our attitude moving forward. We can remember that we are at war. We can summon a bit more gratitude. We can be mindful of the high price that has been paid by so many for our complacency. We can cure apathy. We can remember why America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.