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On Veteran’s Day, let’s take the time to acknowledge the armed services veterans presently in our lives as well as the modern history of war, but let’s also stop to consider just how war disrupts our institutions.
It’s very hard to imagine even the possibility of someday going to, say, Mike Trout’s Baseball Reference page and finding an entire season entry on his career record blank, replaced with only the words “Did not play in major or minor leagues (Military Service)”, which you can see on Willie Mays’ record. War used to take center stage. Somehow, it’s been pushed to the margins or simply twisted into some other long-running event that’s just naturally part of daily life.
Consequently, as war itself devalues life, devaluing war devalues life even further. Our decisions stretching from Vietnam and into the 21st century have made the sacrifices of those then and now almost an asterisk in history, war a foregone conclusion and just a normal part of human economy.
Doesn’t have to be this way, of course. Veterans Day was originally Armistice Day. We should always try to remember that this day was about celebrating the end of conflict, not just the sacrifices and efforts made along the way in service of them.