Honoring America’s Veterans By Changing the Tone
It’s Veterans Day 2020. A day when most veterans reflect on their service, reckon with the complexities of a profession of arms, and feel pride in their worthy accomplishments. But this year feels different. Following what may be the most divisive election season in memory, I am deeply concerned about the challenges our nation faces.
Of course, Veterans Day isn’t a political holiday; it’s a day to honor service. We honor the sacrifices of the men and women of America’s armed services in their duty to protect our constitution, our country, and our way of life. Even still — at a time when your party affiliation seems to define your identity more than your passport does, I find myself wondering what those terms even mean any more.
Our political leaders speak messages of division and otherness while the political parties fight an ever-expanding, all-consuming culture war. Compromise has become a dirty word, and even a hint that you’re open to changing your mind is blood in the water to your opponents. Calls for civility are met with laughter and claims that, “we don’t have time to be civil when they want to take our rights.” Listening is out, broadcasting and performative communication are in.
Typically, the hullabaloo of national politics doesn’t pose an existential threat to our country. But something in the tone has shifted. Right-wing pundits believe that Democrats want to impose socialism on this great country. Leftists argue that all conservatives are racist if they pursue an agenda an iota out of step with progressivism. Neither of these is accurate, but we can all be forgiven for thinking they are — social media and yellow journalism perpetuate the worst our country has to offer.
In fact, according to More in Common, a non-profit studying the difference between our perceived political differences and our actual ones, the more news media we consume, the larger this “perception gap” about our fellow citizens becomes. Meanwhile, countries like China, Russia, and Iran cheer our internal quarreling and add fuel to the fire with their manipulation of social media and the spread of disinformation.
Our nation is exhausted from this struggle, but this is not a piece calling for a truce. Vibrant debate, vigorous contention, and the competition of ideas are what makes a democracy, our democracy, worth protecting. But we cannot have that debate if our loudest and most politically engaged citizens treat one another as an existential threat. As someone who swore to protect this country and its most cherished ideals, I am instead calling on public leaders and citizens alike to shift the tone of public discourse. If we fail to do so, I worry that the nation I swore to defend could injure itself and its institutions so severely in the next decade that it could be beyond repair.
So, as I reflect on my service this Veterans Day, I issue a request to my fellow countrymen and women. Pursue your agendas with vim and vigor, fight for your beliefs, mobilize supporters, but extend grace to your political opponents. Walk in their shoes for a moment. Empathize. Read. Question. And treat them with the dignity and respect you wish for yourself.
If you want to honor America’s Veterans this year, help change the tone of our national conversation. When the polls are closed and all the ballots are counted, we are all on the same team.
