Something larger than ourselves

I drive back and forth on I-44 a lot because most of the people and events I enjoy are at least 20 miles from where I live. I also transport dogs that have been rescued from puppy mills which takes me to Rolla and back to Sunset Hills at least once a month. To make the drive seem less mind-numbing, I listen to audio books on CD's. I like mysteries where the murder or act of treason happens quickly and the rest of the story is about evaluating the clues. The story I have been listening to recently took place in the summer of 1914 while tensions were building in Europe and the enlightened, highly civilized Englishmen of Cambridge anguished over what would become inevitable. They knew that war kills more than bodies. It kills the spirit as well. In one of the scenes, a young female pacifist asks how men can brutalize each other and then go home and enjoy light conversation at tea time. They are never the same. They have to pretend to be, but they're not. She speaks of the veneer of civilization being stripped off and the ugly truth about human nature being exposed. I thought of my neighbor's son who just graduated from high school and who will be leaving for Marine basic training next week. I've said it before and I'll say it again, high school ROTC programs should be banned. Those children are not capable mentally and emotionally of committing their lives, literally in some cases, to a cause they don't even understand. The story about England and World War I began on a beautiful summer day at a cricket match. It was one of those days when the soul believes God's in his heaven and all's right with the world. An innocence so palpable that it hurts to watch. The peaceful scene is shattered when the brother of one of the college professors comes to tell him that their parents have died in an auto accident. I thought of that scene from 1914 last Sunday as my young neighbor played with his three-year old nephew in their back yard. His girlfriend watched with those innocent eyes we all remember from our own youth. The boy's mother was busy tending flowers, and I heard him call something to her. The giggly laughter of the toddler, the young man calling "Mom," and the perfect summer's day became the photograph of one moment of happiness that the family will cherish when the future becomes reality. That innocent, passionately patriotic young man will soon join the ranks of those who know what horrible things human beings are capable of doing to each other. The young men of England went off to a war they believed couldn't last more than a few months or a year at most. They signed up because it was the honorable thing to do. With centuries of English history behind them and a belief in the superiority of their way of life, they knew God was on their side and they would win handily. Four years later, most of the men of the Cambridgeshires were dead or so badly broken that they lay in hospitals back home staring at the ceiling. Young women answered the call to duty as well and drove old ambulances that constantly broke down or tended to the broken bodies of English and German soldiers. In one scene, two English soldiers stomped a German POW almost to death before the chaplain intervened. His anger boiled over as he berated the Englishmen for falling into the devil's trap. "For God's sake, if we are no better than that, why did millions of men die?" he asked them. What was the point of war if not to defend the honor of England and a higher form of civilized behavior toward our fellow human beings. Even in the midst of slaughter, there are norms of behavior we must not grind under foot. When the chaplain was asked if he'd go back to teaching theology when the war was over, he replied that he couldn't do something that was so detached from reality any more. All the soldiers could talk about was going home, but they knew the home they left no longer existed. England had changed. Everything that made life beautiful had changed. Art, society and faith had changed forever. I've been thinking a lot about honor lately. Maybe my British ancestry is trying to connect with me as I watch young soldiers coming back from wars no one understands. I'm asking myself why young people are always the ones to be sacrificed for the crippled egos of a few powerful men. They think they are doing the honorable thing, and we, as a society, fluff and puff over them to keep that illusion alive for them. But it's all lies, and we know it deep down. Maybe that's why we have to overdo the flag waving and funeral processions. Maybe if we line the streets and watch the casket carried to its final resting place we can push the nagging truth a little further down and swallow it again. My childhood was molded by World War II, which was really just a continuation of World War I, but with more destructive weapons. I grew up being reminded that England was my homeland and must be saved from Naziism. There was a clear enemy and lines of battle. Wars up to that time involved tens of thousands of men dressing in uniforms to identify themselves as being on one side or the other and then trying to kill anyone in the opposite uniform. Even though it seems insane to us now, that kind of war was at least honorable in the sense that there were rules of engagement. When one side finally called it quits, the war was over and a there was a sense of finality. In 1945, we celebrated by banging pots and pans with heavy spoons and hugging anyone close enough to grab. That was the last war with a clearly defined beginning and end. What we have today are young people dressed in military garb heading off to places they had never heard about until they signed up to "defend our freedom." The war in Afghanistan is entering its twelfth year - longer than WW I and WW II combined - but the "enemy" changes costumes as the opportunity to kill presents itself. There are no clear battle lines any more. Even the purpose of the war changes year by year. And there certainly won't be anything like a surrender, a recognizable ending, and no celebration of victory. I started this essay intending to link how we fight wars to how our society has changed. I can't offer a cause and effect connection, but I do think our society has become less honorable in the sense that there are no civilian rules of engagement anymore. Maybe I'm looking back through rose-colored glasses, but I remember being raised to think of myself as representing all the people with whom I was connected. We were told to behave honorably because our actions reflected on our families, our neighborhood, our school and our religious group. I can still hear my father saying, "Don't forget you're a Cowburn. Don't do anything to shame us." When we were heading on school buses to watch our team play another school, our teachers would tell us to behave and not to dishonor the school. I wonder if teachers talk that way anymore. Maybe they do. Somewhere between then and now, we seem to have lost that sense of owing something to others. Maybe I'm just too sensitive to the TV ads that urge us to enjoy life, pamper ourselves, and "look out for number one." Maybe the Emily Post stuff of my day was a little silly, but I miss seeing people behave with respect and courtesy toward each other on TV. We've come to accept violence toward each other as the norm. Some company in Texas has produced a video showing us how to react if someone with a gun tries to shoot us at work or at school. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? Why are we learning how to hide from someone trying to kill us instead of learning how to prevent those mass murders? And how do we know who the enemy is? Be afraid. Be very afraid. That seems to be the message resonating throughout our society today. Even the political discourse has become so vicious, so outrageously dishonest that we either accept it as "the way things are today" or tune it out. We don't trust our elected officials any more. We know they will do or say anything to get elected. So we fix our gaze on some slogan that sounds real and hard and true. We want substance but settle for flim-flam that reinforces our pre-existing prejudices. I agree with conservatives who say we've lost our moral compass, but I don't agree with their idea that we should follow them into the abyss. We can probably never go back to the sense of national oneness we felt during World War II or even the fervent but short-lived feeling of unity after the attacks of 9/11. But, if we start with our own small circle of concern for others and rebuild the moral foundation so essential for survival as a democracy, maybe we can defend ourselves against the charlatans dressed up as our friends but who will leave us broken and bleeding on the political battlefield. It may sound trite, but it's true that we need to be the change we want to see. It has to start with our own sense of honor and obligation to society. Last night on Jennifer Granholm's political discussion TV show, she interviewed two members of the millennial generation, ages 18-30. They both said that young people have tuned out because the campaign has become so vicious and dishonest. They want to hear from the candidates how each will offer them something of value. They don't want to hear generalities about creating jobs and making it easier to go to college. So far, so good. I imagine that's what all of us who pay attention want. But, as I listened to the discussion with the young men, I couldn't help feeling a tad disgusted. Granholm asked them what it would take to get those young voters energized and out there to support Obama again this time, and her guests said the same thing - offer them something that will help them, as individuals, to become financially successful. Am I too naive in hoping that young Americans might look beyond themselves and see what is at stake in this election? Maybe it was easier for us when the enemy dressed in Nazi or Japanese uniforms and literally tried to kill our relatives. The "enemy within" is a constant theme in world history. Civilizations rise and fall based on choices the citizens make. This year is the capstone election for those who have used the power of the dollar to dismantle all the public programs and institutions that it took a century to build. One of their PAC's is called "Now or Never," and they know that's true. They are using a battlefield technique by coming at us from both directions at once. They are making it harder for citizens who tend to vote for Democrats to get their votes counted. At the same time, they are pouring millions of dollars into campaigns designed to destroy the few defenders of the common good still out there. The story about World War I ends when a handful of English citizens and one German officer realize there was something even more dangerous than war, and that was a plot by English and German leaders to form an Anglo-German alliance and divide up the rest of Europe for themselves. The plan was to bring the Americas back into the British Commonwealth by force. The heroes of the story risked their lives to expose the plot because it was dishonorable. They believed there was something larger than themselves worth fighting and dying for. Love of country meant defending its honor. The players now are different, but the plot to control the world's resources is the same. The enemy dresses up in lovely TV ads assuring us that we are safe and that they are taking care of us. Once they have total control of our political system and we recognize their treason, it will be too late to stop them. We can tune it out and enjoy our entertaining diversions or we can fight for something larger than ourselves. No foreign enemy can do as much damage as the traitors among us. I'm old and tired and burnt out on all this disgusting political stuff. I don't blame younger voters for tuning out. But my generation still believes there is something worth fighting for larger than ourselves. So I'll work to re-elect President Obama because the stakes are too high to ignore.