“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult – to begin a war and to end it.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
The road I run bisects a small cemetery. Recently, as I was running through the area, I stopped to pick up trash someone had tossed onto the graves nearest the road. Picking up trash put me at eye level with a simple, unadorned plain headstone and marker that I would not have paid attention to had it not been for the trash strewn nearby. The burial was relatively new, as evidenced by the mounds of dirt where the grass has yet to take root. At eye level, I could read the headstones and plaque in front. The person buried in this family plot is a Vietnam Veteran and a Prisoner of War. Next to him is his father. A similar plaque except the inscription is Korean War Veteran. Small American flags are next to each site. Two generations served and sacrificed to preserve democracy here and abroad. It will not surprise me if there is a third plaque with a World War II inscription with the same family name. A heritage of service and generational sacrifice.
I know nothing about the family or the family history except what the inscriptions read. Unlike some graves with towering stone testamental monuments and quotes etched as permanent memorials, the words chiseled into these stones are plain. Maybe the message needs little adornment. I was born, lived, fought for what I believe, and passed to the next world without fanfare or much ado.
It seems generations that serve in combat say as much by their silence, by deed, than can ever be captured in word. Yet, we can claim unequivocally these men risked their lives for what some today cynically say is “a fool’s errand, a war without purpose, or a cause that death and destruction are too costly to justify the result.” I, for one, most vehemently disagree with the cynics!
The cause for democracy is just; it is moral; though the cost is terribly expensive, liberty (the most precious of all ideals) will always be paid for with the currency of generational sacrifice.
Those who cynically believe democracy is at its sunset and wars for principles, ideals, moral causes are nothing more than imperialistic attempts to maintain the preeminent position that world powers enjoy, are the same folks who can’t comprehend generational sacrifice – giving up something dear to oneself to protect something greater than ourself. Generational sacrifice is the voluntary surrender of something of great personal value today in exchange for something more valuable to a future generation.
Democracy is a gift, a moral imperative given willingly to someone without an expectation of the reciprocity of the gift. We give to those who come after us, and to those, we may not know or see. Democracy transcends the problems of the day, portends a better future. The only guarantee of future liberty and freedom is that the present generation must generationally sacrifice to contribute towards it. We are not just in the business of preservation or conservation. We must engage in the business of elevation – elevating the ideals, concepts, precepts, and principles to the next generation to live freely, without fear of tyranny or freedoms lost. After all, why preserve something worthless, the cynics ask? To that end, we must respond, because freedom is the most valuable and prized of all ideals.
I am no expert on war or military service. I claim no special gift or talent or authority to answer on behalf of my generation, those born after Korea and before Vietnam. It is interesting to note that since the Revolutionary War, the United States has fought twelve wars and several battles all across the globe. More importantly, since 1942, Congress has not exercised its Constitutional duty to declare war even though Americans are involved in conflict worldwide. Americans can argue and debate whether our soldiers should be involved in so many different hotspots in the world and what the purpose is. What is unmistakable, and de Tocqueville is right, “There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult – to begin a war and to end it.” I would add a third statement to de Tocqueville’s quote. It seems in our case, for our leaders to acknowledge and publicly debate the merits of combat actions on foreign soil.
Meanwhile, families, sons, daughters, and friends in our military dutifully sacrifice voluntarily as our military is all-volunteer, engage in combat while the political leaders of my generation shirk both the duty of Constitutional public debate and vote. The question is, is democracy on the wane because my generation has contributed little by way of generational sacrifice? Do the enemies of democracy have little or no fear of America because they observe a decline in a generational sacrifice they perceive as a decline in democratic values?
Maybe the question is not what has my generation contributed, but what have I contributed. That question we can all answer. Robert Kennedy wrote, “Every generation inherits a world it never made; and, as it does so, it automatically becomes the trustee of that world for those who come after. In due course, each generation makes its own accounting to its children.” Each generation is a trustee to the next. Democracy succeeds because we are individually part of the trust for the next generation.
We should not fear the democracy cynics. Nor should we place much stock in what the forces of tyranny think. The difference between tyranny and democracy is tyranny uses power to constrain liberty. The power of democracy is unconstrained liberty; the nightmare of every despot in history! Generations of history bear this point as valid.
Singularly, we must evaluate and come to terms with our willingness to generationally sacrifice. There will always be those who contribute more by serving dutifully in the military, public service, or volunteering. The little league baseball coach is to be celebrated for their contribution as much as the public servant. No sacrifice is too small. A free society will always contain a portion of folks who contribute little but are the beneficiary of the hard labor of others. Cynics see only the non-contributors and smugly think they represent American democracy. They are wrong. A stroll through a veteran’s cemetery says otherwise. Generational sacrifice is American democracy’s dawn, not democracy’s dusk.
Essays in Democracy 