“Thank You For Your Service.”
Doug Rawlings
The poet Michael S. Harper once wrote that as an
African-American artist he felt that his very being is
often a kind of "battle field" where the struggle to be
free and equal in a racist society is waged for all to
witness. His metaphor made me think of those of us
in VFP who could reach into a drawer and pull out a
DD214, those of us who are confronted by wellmeaning folk on Memorial Day and Veterans Day with
a hearty "Thank you for your service." The matrix
where our inner lives clash with the public's mythologized version of who we are is suddenly thrust upon
us.
As we struggle to respond, we have entered, become, if you will, veritable "battlefields." What to do?
Well, in the spirit of sometimes using our VFP newsletter as a manual, I welcomed the suggestion from
Mike Ferner that we put together a list of "pithy repartees" from our membership to help us respond to the
statement "Thank you for your service." Some responses are more acerbic than others, some take
more than two breaths to express their speaker's sentiment, and some may not necessarily endear you to
the "thankee," so you'll have to choose which variation you might want to employ. Enjoy! And thanks to
all who chimed in....
I don't want any thanks because I did as little as I
possibly could. What I want is for you to write to your
congressperson/senator and tell them we need to get
out of the Middle East and bring the troops home. - Bill
Warrick
I committed war crimes. You're welcome. - Bart Bolger
******
Please don't thank me for my 'service.' I was in the
military, not the 'service.' Service is doing something
good. Service is what the person does who fixes
your car, if you have one. When the word 'service' is
applied to the military, it helps to justify violence as a
method of conflict resolution. The military solution to
conflict is death and destruction. That's not 'service.'
Call it what it is - the military. If you have to hurt
someone to solve a problem, you are the problem. Jon Miles, Alice Ritter, and Amy Stieber.
If I told you that during my service I attacked civilians in their homes at night... would you thank me for
that? - Ben Griffin
When I was in the Marine Corps, I was there for selfish
reasons. I'll accept your thanks for the work I do for peace
today and yesterday and tomorrow. - Jim Lovestar
I usually respond to the service thanks with a thank
you back but tell them I feel the work I have done
since returning has been of greater value. Which then
leads to further discussion. - Barry Riesch
20
VFP Newsletter Summer
If we're holding banners or flags at a demonstration,
'Do you mean for what we're doing here today? Thanks,
we think we're serving our country better by working for
peace. - Bill Distler
Of course most people who say 'thank you for your
service' are trying to be respectful, no? So we don't
necessarily want to come back with an angry zinger,
Maybe something like: Thank you. I am now a Veteran
For Peace. I know first-hand that war is not the way to
serve humanity. - Gerry Condon
You know, my time in the military helped me understand the futility of war. The best way I can serve my
country now is to be a member of Veterans For
Peace. - Gregory Grigsby
Thank you but part of my service was assisting in the
brutalization of the Vietnamese people and for that I am
not proud," and "if anybody wants to thank me for my
service, then please thank me for my service as a professional firefighter where I was trained to and did save
lives, not take them." -- Ken Dalton