From August 24, 2011

The other day my daughter's social studies teacher assigned the class the task of writing three questions for Viet Nam veterans who would be visiting her class on Thursday to mark Veterans' Day. That was cool except for a few obvious things: 1. They are studying the American Revolution, so Viet Nam was slightly out of context. Therefore, 2. they had no background information from which to generate the questions. This created 3. a lack of sensitivity toward and awareness of the kinds of questions that are appropriate as well as (Dare I say it?) logical.

I assured my daughter  we had the material on the bookshelf to help her understand something of the situation those veterans would have faced. We'd read up a bit, and she would not ask bozo questions and set the free world back by 60 years. 

This conversation took place on a hill in the dark as we walked Clyde for his evening constitutional. Apparently, the universe was listening in, because it delivered to us our neighbor, a retired officer who had served as an Airborne Ranger on more than 140 deployments over 11 years. I mentioned the assignment to this gentleman, and he did my daughter's homework right there on the side of the road and encouraged her to suggest that her teacher provide kids with some parameters so that they don't ask a question that might be a PTSD trigger or a just plain bad question. As it turns out, this man had the same teacher for social studies back in his day. That teacher's son had served in the army.  (It seemed to me as I listened to him that we all know each other in a real and extended way, that we are indeed connected and should therefore be committed to each other.)

In a matter of minutes, my daughter had a sense of what it is to serve and be understood or misunderstood and to be left to deal with it, to do what you're told as a matter of honor and to leave the politics to other people in the (wild) hope they might have your back. And if they don't, the courageous and decent guy coming down the road does.

What to do on Veterans' Day? Reflect and be grateful. That's what our neighbor said after many years of service.

My heartfelt thanks go out to those fine folks who serve this country through military service.