My piece, “Army, Flag and Cross” is posted at the Council for Secular Humanism’s site as a “web exclusive” (link on upper
right side of page).  I beta-tested the piece with several close friends, and the reactions ranged from “traitorous diatribe” to
“insightful summary.” I’d be interested in y’all’s opinions. Here’s the beginning:

Brilliant. It was the first word that came to mind when I saw the bumper sticker. The vehicle ahead ground slowly through rush-hour traffic. I had time to study it, to think about what the thing meant.

It was yet another variant on the ubiquitous American “yellow ribbon.” Across the front, on a field of yellow, were the words “Support Our Troops.” The ribbon looped back and showed a field of white stars on a blue background, evoking the American flag. The cleverest part of the ribbon was the last section, hanging below the “Support Our Troops” slogan. It was red-and-white striped, intended to carry forward the American flag theme. But a subtle suggestion of a white sunburst joined with the vertical white stripe and overlaid it with a faint horizontal white stripe. It didn’t take me more than a few seconds to realize that this was intended to be a subtle evocation of the Christian cross.

There it was encapsulated, complete, uncut, pure: the symbolic essence of an America that has drifted far from civilization, an America that has grown very, very strange. The America that bumper sticker symbolizes has left behind the world of rational nation-states and slipped off into a sentimental realm of Romanticism.

Steve,

I think it is a very well written piece. I have to admit I had to look up the General - a Fort Bragg psychologist actually wanted to discharge Boykin for being too religious - that’s scary.

Also, I think you missed one alibi for the warrior volunteers. I came from an upper middle-class family and I neither cared nor thought about anything but girls, pot and music. Realizing that I was going nowhere, I enlisted in the Air Force (1971). I joined because I was lost. And you know what? I felt that almost everyone around me was in the same boat. I do support the troops, but not the war. I do so because I feel that it is perfectly reasonable to be lost and stupid when you are 18 years of age. It’s not preferable, but it can work out. I ended up graduating at the top of my class in college. Military experience helped me grow up. Lucky for me, Vietnam was coming to a close. My heart goes out to those kids who, like me at that age, are just trying to fit in somewhere.

Thanks for the heads-up Steve. Interesting article.

traveler - 08 May 2008 03:38 PM

Steve,

I think it is a very well written piece. I have to admit I had to look up the General - a Fort Bragg psychologist actually wanted to discharge Boykin for being too religious - that’s scary.

Also, I think you missed one alibi for the warrior volunteers. I came from an upper middle-class family and I neither cared nor thought about anything but girls, pot and music. Realizing that I was going nowhere, I enlisted in the Air Force (1971). I joined because I was lost. And you know what? I felt that almost everyone around me was in the same boat. I do support the troops, but not the war. I do so because I feel that it is perfectly reasonable to be lost and stupid when you are 18 years of age. It’s not preferable, but it can work out. I ended up graduating at the top of my class in college. Military experience helped me grow up. Lucky for me, Vietnam was coming to a close. My heart goes out to those kids who, like me at that age, are just trying to fit in somewhere.

That’s a good perspective, and one I didn’t pull into the piece. Just so much one can do with 3300 words, which they they edited down to 2000 words, dontcha know ... But yeah, that is a very important reason a lot of people join the service. Heck, my oldest kid was just like you and , after 6 years in the Navy, he’s a phenomenal young man with a career and a future. Had I been given enough space to really do justice to this aspect of the subject, this would have factored in heavily, and I could’ve spelled out in detail that I don’t have a problem with the service as a choice (many in my family were military, some were career military, and I myself tried unsuccessfully to get into West Point when I was a teen). However, what I do insist on is that service members take their job description seriously, including their moral imperative to refuse to execute illegal orders. If one accepts that Iraq was and remains an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation not currently at war with the US, then all service members have an obligation, both under international war and their own field manual, to say “Sir, no Sir!”