Usable Insight – Sacrifice Repaid
first seen at Huffington Post
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
- Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural address, March 4, 1865
This photograph of Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address is the only known photograph of Lincoln giving a speech. Lincoln stands in the center, with papers in his hand.
There is something I have trouble comprehending. Capitalism dictates that whoever takes the biggest financial risks, deserve the biggest rewards. And the worry now is that if executive pay is clamped down on, there will be a whole spate of people who will refuse to work if they are not rewarded according to what they feel their taking risks warrant.
If that is so, then how do we rationalize how small the rewards, much less simple repayment, are given to soldiers and veterans who put their lives (and consequently their families’ well-being) at risk so that the rest of us can enjoy freedom and a chance for capitalistic success.
A friend recently told me:
“The measure of a civilization is how it treats those who have hurt it, are hurting in it, and have sacrificed for it.”
I’m not here to rail against our post Geneva Convention torture of detainees nor about the health care problems of nearly all Americans that refuse to get solved. There are more than enough people at the Huffington Post and elsewhere to weigh in on those.
But I am here to say that it is not enough to honor the “all who gave some” servicemen and women with parades on Veterans Day and the “some who gave all” who gave their lives with ceremonies on Memorial Day. We need to repay their sacrifice with the resources they need and deserve to return to fulfilling civilian lives. And if they have died, we need to help their families.
It’s the least all of us can do.
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Tags: abraham lincoln, doris kearns goodwin, mark goulston, soldiers, veterans
June 12th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Sobering
June 12th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
There is a disconnect here:
“There is something I have trouble comprehending. Capitalism dictates that whoever takes the biggest financial risks, deserve the biggest rewards. And the worry now is that if executive pay is clamped down on, there will be a whole spate of people who will refuse to work if they are not rewarded according to what they feel their taking risks warrant”
For example, I served 6 years in the military. The work was hard and the pay small. I don’t whine about it. It is encugh that the rest of my life I can pursue my own goals and rewards, without governiemt dictating what I may earn. The USA is not a commune or a social institution. We don’t need or want government intervention, particularly like we’re seeing now.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hello Gary, Thank you once again for your distinct comments and point of view. I agree that when you served, being able to pursue your life afterwards was enough and you didn’t need government interference or support. Like it or not, personalities AND VALUES are different now. I don’t think greed was as rampant and I think non-selfish cooperation was more present when you served in the military and beyond.
You can take a “what was good enough for me, should be good enough for them” approach because that is your right and we do have freedom of speech, but I just think the times are different now.
I am not looking at this as an excuse, but to simply state that there is a different reality. When you served and came back to live, we as a country had not invaded a la 9/11.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Poignant. Reminds me of a (very true) story about my friend’s young sister (who was 6 or 8 at the time). It was Veteran’s Day and her mother asked her if she knew what a verteran was. The young girl replied “aren’t they homeless people?”
I think the story drives home the same point… we talk about supporting troops abroad but we don’t talk about what happens after they come home or what their families go through. People put yellow ribbons on their cars and talk about those who have sacrificed their lives on an intellectual level but without advocating for the things that these people really need.
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