Nov 11th, Armistice day, is meant as a time to remember the horrors of war so that we hopefully don’t do that anymore. The Concert for Valor was the exact opposite that - an orgy of war worship. We have erased the one anti-war day on our calendar and turned it into a recruitment video on the glories of warfare and of being a soldier.
And ‘Concert for Valor?’ Who comes up with these names? Jingoism in its purest form.
Anybody know who paid for this extravaganza?
No, that’s what Memorial Day is for. In the US, we don’t celebrate Armistice Day.
One of the problems with all this warrior worship is that we end up putting these folks on a pedestal and they try their darnedest to live up to the lionization. Guys who are emotional wrecks trying to tuff it out instead of getting help because everyone tells them they are heroes.
…anymore. We don’t celebrate Armistice Day anymore, which is my complaint. The day falls exactly on the anniversary of the end of WWI for a reason. We have replaced it with “War is wonderful day.”
Memorial day is to remember all those service members who have died, whether in a warzone or on a golf course in Florida. I rarely hear anything about war on either day.
All the freaking out about Eminem being Eminem at the concert actually have me thinking this thing may have actually been fun to watch.
That’s another one of those ‘What the hell did they expect?’ moments.
When I was posted in Uganda, the Ambassador asked me to be the DJ for the July 4th party. First song I played was the Hendrix version of The Star Spangled Banner, which I heard made her angry. Second song was Fortunate Son, which got me a personal stink-eye from her. Fuck the right AND their worship of anything in a uniform.
Also, the Salon article linked above is a huge crock of truth.
I’m a combat vet myself, and think the soldier worship is completely out of hand but this part from your article
has me asking “what is the cause that they were bringing awareness too?” That there are veterans and we’ve served? I don’t get it.