📧 to Cathleen Falsani

Here is another stab at addressing the failure to mention veterans, soldiers, or war in reference to our "moral compass". i noticed that in his morning joe appearance, gay marriage and abortion made it onto the agenda, but still nothing about our nation's longest war and the human cost here at home. is Jim going to eventually get around to it?

i have tried to conceal my deep frustration and anger at the continued oversight of our nations veterans as a relevant and urgent subject of discussion in reference to our election fetish. other planners for the vets day event also have their eyes on this to try to make sure i do not let the public see the depth of my offense at all this. i am happy to hear from you if i have failed in that regard, or if you feel this post is not something that GP can publish for some reason.

Attached Draft

November is always a difficult time for me. At least it has been since I came home from Iraq back in 2005. I learned quickly in VA counseling sessions that “anniversaries” often exacerbate the hidden wounds of war so often carried back from the battlefield. These aren’t the kind of anniversaries that suggest a specific precious stone, these are the type that make it fee as though a bunch of stones are in the pit of your stomach.

In November 2004, I watched an American soldier die slow and cold on a blustery night, days before many of his unit were meant to go home on Rest & Recuperation (R&R) Leave. My platoon assisted in the recovery effort, and I still can’t get the images form the scene out of my head. Sleep is a luxury this month every year since.

But there is another reason this month has such a love-to-hate relationship with me. Every year on the 11th of November, the United States celebrates Veterans Day, a day we memorialize those who served our country in the Armed Forces. In the midst of the most prolonged conflict we have ever undertaken, it would seem that the imperative of rapt attention to the reality our veterans would be absolutely central to our public discourse, in both the political realm and the ecumenical realm.

CBS did a study in 2007 that found that in 2005, the year I returned from Iraq, an average of 17 veterans killed themselves every day (and that is based on data from only 46 states). As for active duty service members, in 2009 and 2010, there were more suicides than there were combat fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Do those numbers deserve our attention?

Jim Wallis and Richard Land recently did a series of interviews that speculated about the issues that would be prioritized in the evangelical world. The first, at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Wallis reported on here at God’s Politics. I got it in an email last Thursday afternoon. He noticed at that point that the issue of gay marriage and abortion were conspicuously absent their discussion, as well as from questions by reporters. The following morning, on Morning Joe on MSNBC, marriage and abortion made its appearance.

Crushingly, nowhere in either of those discussions did the matter of our veterans returning from war find voice. Just over a week from Veterans Day, in our eleventh year at war, and nothing about the burden our troops carry and its expression in the highest suicide rate our nation has ever recorded. In less than two months, the Iraq War will practically end. The force reduction in that theater will carry an influx of veterans into society, the Church, and our educational institutions.

Wallis and Land fell short of the mark last week – our nation’s past and present service members deserve our full attention. It should not matter that we are a minority population (active duty is less than 1%, veterans hover around 4%). Point ethicist Lt. Col. Pete Kilner has said that training our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, to sacrifice their normal reluctance to killing carries with it the obligation to help soldiers cope. Our national and religious leaders are obligated to deliberately and compassionately turn their attention to the social plight of soldiers and veterans. This obligation does not disappear during an election year, in fact, it only heightens the obligation (as well as the transgressive force when said obligation is overlooked).

I pray to God that veterans will not face the silence so thunderously expressed last week. In fact, it has been my prayer for a long time now. For over a year, I have been a part of a small but growing group of students at Duke Divinity School that are trying to break down the taboos and trepidations that keep us silent about war and its toll on our troops. We’ve been asking ourselves; what we do after the initial gratitude, what do we do when the ticker tape finally hits the ground, what do we do After the Yellow Ribbon?

We all have people in our lives that have been in the military and are wrestling with how to recover the person they were before their moral integrity became fragmented by their proximity to war. Maybe they are in class sitting beside you. Maybe they sit on the pew behind you in church. Maybe they are your close friend or a family member. Whoever they are, they need you. They need you to be attentive to their particularities as soldiers or veterans.

At After the Yellow Ribbon this weekend, we will be trying to set our differences aside, just like Wallis and Land did last week. Their effort is admirable, but like all our human efforts, they fell a bit short. Silence, however, must not be the last word. I am pretty sure our attempt won’t be perfect, but it will be a start. Wars and results of wars (for our enemy as well as our neighbor) should always be a point on our “moral compass.”

Just like Wallis and Land’s discussions were only a start, After the Yellow Ribbon wants to open up dialogue that you can be a part of it too. Even though my preference is to see all the God’s Politics readers in Durham, NC this weekend, you will also be able to listen to many of our sessions on iTunesU.

November is particularly tough for me because all the energy around the election comes at the expecse of veterans like myself and others in our society. Every year, Veterans Day is just seven days after Election Day, and in 2012, they both fall on Sundays. It is a poignant reminded for us all to remember that the immediacy of our political process should never overshadow the ongoing imperative of healing the hidden wounds of war in our communities and in our lives, our own and those for whom we are called to care.