Blog Post #017 (July 21, 2024) [This--which I will headline "Heroes aren't 'suckers' and 'losers'"--is what I submitted originally as my St. Cloud Times column for July. It was rejected by the Times on the grounds that it contravenes the paper's "no political endorsements" rule. The Times did invite me to submit another column, which was published on July 21.]
Last month’s column by Times Writers Group colleague Gerry Feld, “Imagining the beaches of Normandy during D-Day: Saying a prayer for U.S. soldiers” (June 9), was timely, vivid, and riveting.
“Suddenly you remember Col. George Taylor, commander of the First Division, rushing across the beach, encouraging his men by yelling, ‘Only two kinds of people are going to be on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die. Now get moving!’” Feld then startles me with his recognition of the difference between his situation and theirs 80 years ago: "My feet begin to move, but I'm not wearing heavy combat boots or carrying 65 pounds of combat gear on my back with a rifle in my hand and a steel helmet on my head."
Feld’s imagination nails him right there on June 6, 1944: “The only way out of this is to move forward, to that sea wall where well-camouflaged German machine guns continue spraying death among the invading forces. The wall, the safety of that damn wall is all that flows through my mind.”
Then Feld recounts a conversation some years ago with Steve, a D-Day veteran who had nearly drowned, lost his gear, and was challenged by an officer to resupply himself – which he did by taking a weapon and helmet from a dead soldier lying on the beach. “Before returning to the sea wall Steve said a prayer for the soldier while thanking him for the use of his equipment. Sitting below the sea wall looking back across that beach, I thanked God for Steve and the other brave soldiers of D-Day.”
Feld’s column moved me for many reasons.
First, because it is so skillfully written (his signature line notes that he’s a published novelist).
Second, because I haven’t had military experience. I have two nephews recently retired from Army (Col.) and Marine Corps (Maj.), and a second cousin in the Air Force (Maj. Gen.). I am grateful to them, and can thank them for serving on my behalf, but their bravery, and that of Col. Taylor and Steve, is something I’ve never been called on to demonstrate. Like Feld, I thank God for them.
Third, the column clarified the depth of my bafflement about our current plight as a nation.
Feld’s signature line says also that “he writes about issues from a conservative perspective.” My perspective is liberal; Feld and I often disagree. But when it comes to respect for the military, gratitude for what the men and women in uniform mean for our tradition, our safety, our identity as a free people – the sort of respect embodied in the June 9 column – this liberal lines up with Feld’s “conservative perspective.” Respect for the military is, I believe, an issue that is at stake in this election. As 6th Dist. Rep. Tom Emmer wrote in his June 25 “Washington Update,” “We have an ongoing obligation to the brave men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to protect our freedoms.”
And here is my perplexity: A staggering number of Americans who call themselves conservatives are poised to cast votes in November for a candidate who is reliably reported to have called the sort of heroes Feld salutes, and prays for, “suckers” and “losers,” and has disparaged a true American hero, John McCain – five years a prisoner in North Vietnam – by saying, “I like people that weren’t captured.” I believe this is neither a liberal nor a conservative response to the issue of support for the military.
I don’t know whom Feld supports. I do know that my agreement with him extends beyond his June tribute to the heroes of D-Day. In May he called for young people to step up to public service, including the military. In December he saluted a native Minnesotan. commander of the Battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor: “Capt. Van Valkenburgh was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, ‘For devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and the complete disregard of his own life.’” Feld’s Dec. 2022 column warns of the invader of Ukraine: “This is the real Putin we need to fear. A dangerous man that would much rather see the world dissolve around him, than lose his radical dreams of power.”
We’re far apart on other things – such as transgender care, the new state flag, the effort to make Minnesota a sanctuary state. But unwavering respect for “those who,” as Col. Taylor said 80 years ago, “are dead and are going to die,” and support for the brave patriots of Ukraine – that’s at least a starting point for conversation.