The people who say No
Today is Veteran’s Day in the US. This post honors those who protect humanity wherever they may be, however they may serve.
I don’t like fighting. But some of us have to. My Dad, a colonel in the US Army, wanted me to like fighting. He’d pull out the boxing gloves to make me fight him, fight my brother, and fight my sisters (two against one: that’s not fair!). He felt it was necessary training. Later, after getting repeated beaten up, he signed me up to take karate. I loved it. It was beautiful. Artistic. I got beat up again, going to the emergency room this time. I greatly disappointed him in this respect.
But, he wasn’t a warmonger, either. He said, the smartest soldier was the one who could figure out how to avoid a fight.
If I had to fight, he told me, Make sure you don’t have to fight again. At the same time, he wouldn’t have tolerated excess force. Your goal is to remove you opponent’s will to fight. You should only use the force necessary to ensure it stops.
After serving in Korea, he was assigned to Japan to help rebuild after the war. He took pleasure in Japanese history, culture, and in the desire to be connected with the the rest of the world. Growing up, a Japanese woman happily cared for my siblings and I when my parents were away. I loved she and her American husband, also a Veteran. Respect for the Japanese tradition ran deep in our family’s blood. It was in my Dad’s character to stop fighting - and start rebuilding - whenever the fight was over.1
Have you ever felt unsafe? Have you ever seriously wondered what would happen if totalitarian forces took action against certain nations or groups of people? Among every clan, race, religion, and criminal organization, there are people who wish to do innocents harm. History is rife with those who will hurt the innnocents with impunity.
To be prepared, we need people with a certain timbre who:
- Are educated with specialized knowledge about conflict, strategy, and weaponry,
- Possess a strong moral compass and the willingness to stand up to unjust orders,
- Have steady courage,
- Are, for the purposes of freedom, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep innocents free,
- And a million other outstanding qualities possessed most strongly by the rank and file human being.
On most counts, that’s probably not me. 2 Today is about being grateful for those who possess these assets of character, physical and emotional steel, and the willingness to stand up and against the pressure of the crowd.
It’s not too late to say thank you! Let me say it another way, you should say Thank you. Now. The People who say No, are the final defense of civilized humanity.
A few years before she died, I asked my dear Aunt Yoshi if she harbored any bitterness about the air raids and the atomic bombs dropped on her city and country. No. It’s not the character of the Japanese to harbor resentment for such things. ↩︎
What I lack in most of these characteristics, I may make up for in others. If the safety of my family or friends is involved… ↩︎