While reading last week’s Volante I had very mixed emotions. The veteran’s club, of which I am president, is a proud group of people and is one of the more active groups on campus. Our group, as you can tell by its name, is made up of military veterans, student military, family members of military, as well as civilians.
The club exists not just give its members a social network, but to improve college for all of our military family as well as the other students. This last week was a big week for our group. On April 18, our club set up our annual memorial to honor our fallen brothers and sisters in uniform who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memorial had a small flag to represent each one of the dead.
This year the number of flags totaled more than 5,413. The Volante covered the setting up of the display and Josie Clarey of The Volante did an amazing job re-telling our story. This powerful and hallowed event was not just for veterans but for all Americans who love their freedom and recognize what these brave men and women sacrificed to provide for it. That story made me proud to go to this school; the story that fell below it on the page did not. The story “Student group objects to memorial” told of a group of students who, because of their own beliefs about war, desecrated this humble display to honor our fallen.
The Students Against the State is a group of misguided youngsters claiming they were exercising their student rights to be on campus and protest however they want. This act taken by these misguided students is insulting to everyone who has ever put on a uniform. The display was not set up to glorify war. As people who have been directly affected by war, there is nothing glorious about it. I, as well as many veterans, keep in contact with people I consider friends from that region of the world and will help them people anyway I can. In fact, there is a family who moved from Iraq to Vermillion that the club has helped in the past and will continue to help.
As military people we don’t pick the people we fight and on the modern battlefield, we don’t consider anyone an enemy until they carry out an act to show their intent. This group’s claims are not only insulting but incorrect. SATS claim they retrieved their information from a valid resource, however their resource is invalid. Their group claims to try and give a voice to Iraqi civilians and believes the veterans club flag display should mourn all of the dead from the war. This concept doesn’t work for our group.
We are a group of student veterans; we set up a display to honor our fallen. Should something be done to honor the people of Iraq and Afghanistan? Yes. Should it be done as part of our display? No. If this group would like to set up such a display to honor the people of the great nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, I will offer my personal help. Those of us who have served to give you the rights that you enjoy can handle a lot of things, you can talk out about the war, insult us personally but there is one line that we can and will not ever let you cross. And that is to disrespect our fallen brothers and sisters.
Reach guest columnist Eric Gage at Eric.Gage@usd.edu.
5 comments
I am trying not to revert to sarcasm, but seriously? He presents no evidence for his claim that I used incorrect evidence. Hypocrisy of hilarious proportions. I used the peer-reviewed Lancet survey. For more information see my posts on the other articles.
I do not have the time to respond to the ensuing comments on this or the other 7 articles in this issue, so do not expect it. This just bothered me enough to remember my Volant user name and password.peace and love,
Patrick L