Monday, November 12, 2012

A Slightly Different Veterans' Day Celebration

Remembering military service in any form, whether by statue or memorial service or song or national day of remembrance, is fairly universal (as evidenced from every other country I've visited or experienced in some other way).

However, there can also be a positive cultural exchange that occurs with overseas military deployment that often gets overlooked. In our zeal to try to get veterans to talk about the horrors of war (which many are reticent to spill for a variety of reasons), I expect there are service members who would enjoy speaking of the positive interactions that occurred; the mirror image is also true - many in occupied countries (especially during and immediately after WWII) want to speak not of the horrors of war, but of the happiness at seeing American food and supplies, and the positive interactions with those from friendly countries. As the nature of and mission for war changes and becomes more blurred, the likelihood that those serving will interact with locals in foreign settings in a more routine and non-combat-like manner increases.

As a result, I thought a nod to our universal humanity as a way of honoring veterans' service might be appropriate. I provide you with a snapshot of some of the postcards I've received (as a result of my Postcrossing participation) from a whole host of nations: China, Japan, Germany, Russia, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands. I've managed to create a little piece of art with my favorites (thanks to a painting canvas and some corkboard pins). Let our positive interactions with those of different cultures hopefully diminish the need for service.


2 comments:

  1. Coming from a mostly military family, it's really interesting how different and yet still similar the different generations are when it does come to overseas and potential combat situations. My husband is a little more willing to talk about most of his time on deployment (I think there are a few instances where he will shut down pending the sensitivity of the subject), but on the other hand, my grandfather rarely if ever shared anything about his experiences (he served in both Vietnam and the Korean wars).

    I know for certain both prefer the military for the humanitarian efforts, the positive things, probably because of it being for a better more cheerful cause rather than having to fight and potentially end another's life.

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  2. That's a great idea. I like all those post cards.

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