- November promises to be a big month for the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, and an even bigger month for school kids. That's when
the VFW promotes its books as "reference tools" in America's
classrooms. To make our wars "come alive" for the kids, so to
speak.
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- The VFW says their books pay tribute to the sacrifices
made by Americans in uniform. And, they say, the books are designed as
teaching tools--handy references-- in educating young Americans about the
commitment made in America's wars. Teachers will use them as "instructional
materials" in classrooms, From there, they will edge themselves into
"historic" references.
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- Well, they will no doubt be that and, if the subject
matter is any indication, much more.
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- In perusing the selection of VFW war books available
for children of all ages, we find such mind-searing and mouth-watering
titles as: Cold War Clashes, Battles of the Korean War, Combat Action-Cambodia
to the Balkans, Blaze in the Boondocks, and Fighting on America's Frontier
in the Philippines. (Some of the wars may have been a bit too gory to put
into books for kids.)
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- During the Civil War, General Sherman, in a somber and
emphatic statement said, "War is hell." Considering that Sherman
had seen enough blood and guts to concede that war is about killing, I
fail to see where discussing this kind of death and destruction will add
much intellectual substance to a classroom full of children.
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- Frankly, I find three things wrong with the VFW proliferating
this sort of war propaganda in student classrooms.
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- First, they may mean it to be "a tribute to the
sacrifices" of our young people, but it's much more than that. Call
them what you will, these are war books. Period. They have no redeeming
value other than to pander to the horrors of war and show the smile we
put on the face of suffering. The VFW should stick to its mission of helping
veterans with post-war problems (which they do very well), stay out of
the classrooms, and leave "war education" to the encyclopedia
and library.
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- Second, VFW war books, flat out or by implication, have
only one message to deliver: fighting and death. Not valor, sacrifice,
God and country, heroism, or patriotism----in spite of the gutsy pictures
and kick-ass copy---only how gloriously men, both ours and theirs, died
for their country--- or because of it. I am absolutely against burning
books. And though these book do not belong in the fire, they also do not
belong in the schools.
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- Third, if VFW books were truly educational, they would
give young people "all of the story." They would present for
discussion America's wars as sometimes a drastic necessity, not as heroic
or patriotic adventures.
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- They would discuss options to war; the part that diplomacy
plays as a war deterrent; the legitimate need for a military to defend
our homeland, how adventurism and imperialism lead to war; how our founding
fathers warned us about not meddling in foreign affairs lest it prompt
a war; how wars can be avoided, not by timidity but by negotiating through
strength; how, if war is inevitable, we do not glamorize, eulogize or commemorate
it, but seek to find the cause of it, then declare war on the cause.
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- It may surprise you to know that until recently I was
a member of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
But I am also a WWII veteran who spent three years in the South Pacific
theater, finally quartered in Japan as part of America's occupation force.
So I am not a stranger to war.
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- However, it is that long-range perspective that has convinced
me that war is nearly always a triumph of madness over sanity. And bringing
this madness into the classrooms of America via the VFW war books is, I
am convinced, the last thing young, developing minds need today.
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- Someone once said that the main business of the VFW is
to put itself out of business. That's something else that kids in a classroom
have a right to hear.
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