Once again we are called to salute the men and women who have donned the uniform of our country and pledged to defend our freedoms. Yet as before, I remain conflicted about the various meanings of Memorial Day, especially in the era of pandemics.
We pay lip service to our veterans, but when it comes to their health care, both democratic and republican administrations have failed them. The government's response to the Covid 19 pandemic as regards our veterans, especially the elderly is a case in point. Among the rapidly shrinking cohort of WW2 veterans, many were living in nursing homes and the death toll there has been striking. Even at V.A. facilities, many veterans are virus victims.
Beyond our government's shameful treatment of veterans' health care issues, we have always had an ambivalent feeling for those who served. Especially since we now have a volunteer military, the burden of our defense falls on an increasingly small and isolated band of soldiers and their families. For the first time in generations, my own family counts a couple of our own in the service and I am proud of Aiden and Rick and all they have done. But there will be many cook outs today where the last veteran to have served will have been a great grandparent who served in the second world war as a conscripted hero or an uncle who fought in Viet Nam. We are losing our connection to the pact we made as citizens to defend our country and take care of those who do.
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