Thank You for Your Service!

Election Day just happened, and, as I predicted, politics was just full of garbage. We’ve reached the point that people can’t even agree on who won the latest election. With our country being so polarized, it’s important to remember who the real heroes are. That’s why I’m writing about Veterans’ Day about a week ahead of schedule, as a reminder to all the people out there.

The members of the United States Military are remarkable people. Although I’ve never been one, I think people ought to applaud what they do for their fellow Americans. They are out there risking their lives doing something you or I could never do on our behalf.

Some members of my family have served in the Armed Forces. For example, my Great-Grandfather worked as an electrician in the Philippines during World War Two. He was in charge of refrigeration on the island of Samar. His main job was helping set up Fleet Hospital 114 for the soldiers. He had to endure the tropical Pacific humidity, but struggling against this helped make him the admirable man he was later in life. My great-grandfather had a long memory, so he’d share many stories of his time in the military even into his twilight years. Sometimes, I wish I had written down some of his stories while he was still alive.

Considered in itself, soldiery is a virtuous profession. First, it requires a great deal of discipline to be a soldier. Soldiers generally live in barracks, isolated dormitories. There, they live rigid, structured lifestyles and undergo physically-demanding training. They are expected to follow the orders of their superiors to the letter and will be punished if they deviate. Such an environment produces discipline like nothing else, and it is this discipline that takes them into battle. Only soldiers with the greatest amount of discipline can stay focused in a firefight.

Second, soldiery requires courage. Courage is having enough fearlessness to prevent fear from doing what you need to do without being reckless. Soldiers constantly face physical danger fighting both enemy combatants and hazardous environments. But through their discipline and repeated exposure to danger, they can control their fear enough to accomplish any of their tasks without hesitation.

Besides, soldiers that fight for their country are patriotic. By and large, soldiers fight because they love their families and their fellow countrymen. They take up arms to defend these things as well as the interests of the nation itself, and in doing so, they honor their people. We might not agree with the interests of our leaders, but it is patriotic to honorably fight for the nation’s interests out of loyalty anyway. Similar to how a good son will help his mother with a task even if he disagrees with his mother, a good patriot will do the same for his country.

Because soldiers are exemplars of patriotism, we ought to honor them and their sacrifices. Soldiers do the hard jobs for us that nobody wants to do, so we ought to honor their requests. And by honoring their sacrifices, you too are honoring your country as a good patriot. As Saint Thomas Aquinas explained, each man is a debtor to his country, and paying off this debt is an act of patriotism. Those who fight for their country are, in a way, paying the price for you. Therefore, to be pious, you ought to be grateful to them for paying off your debt.

At the same time, some people would feel conflicted about supporting our troops. Our nation’s stances on, for example, foreign policy, military action, or immigration are controversial, especially in these polarized times. But the Angelic Doctor again stresses that one cannot properly worship God unless he also honors his country because “the greater [virtue] includes the lesser [virtue].” Furthermore, a true patriot would never put his country before what is right because true patriotism is compatible with true religion. Both are virtues, after all. Just because we love our country doesn’t mean we have to love its laws. We follow the law because it is just, not because we are patriotic. Patriotism is something you should have as an individual towards your fellow countrymen.

Veterans Day is a day set up to help honor those that survived the wars and sacrificed much to help us. It is because of this sacrifice that they merited a day to honor them. I think that’s something everyone can appreciate, regardless of their political opinions.