It's All Where You Stand

A number of recent incidents reminded me of my college advisor.  He’d tell us over and over “Where you stand depends on where you sit”.  In other words, your position on issues is largely determined by where you come from.  One man’s war hero is another man’s terrorist.

America post 9/11 has had a love affair with the military.  It has become fashionable to thank any man or woman in uniform for their service.  Yet, less than 1% of the American public is actually involved in the “war effort”.  Never before have so few born the burden for so many.  But the disconnect gets worse. 

Of the 1200 inmates incarcerated here, roughly half are veterans.  Many are young, under 30, who served in the post 9/11 military.   But there are no parades for the guys in here.  They’re just inmates.  Many of these vets have drug problems, post-traumatic stress disorder.  It was OK to send them to Iraq and Afghanistan and it was OK to send them to prison.

The unemployment rate for veterans of our post 9/11 military excursions is above 20%.  The rate of homelessness and PTSD and suicides is staggering.  “Thank you for your service.”

Remember when the Mannes were ordered into Fallujah after four contractors were killed in an IED attack and their bodies drug through the streets and hung from a bridge?  Brutal, disgusting, no respect for human life.  That’s what we said.

What’s been in the news recently?  Photos of US Soldiers urinating on dead “enemy combatants”, or having their photo snapped while they hawk and smile over the dead.  We’ve had evidence presented of soldiers going into villages and slaughtering innocent women and children.  And the tribunals who hear the cases hand down general discharges and suspended jail time.  Meanwhile, we pray over the loss of innocent life on 9/11.  I ask you, is the life of an Afghan child any less important than a stockbroker?  Is an American, sitting in his office and killed by a terrorist a more tragic and more cold-blooded death than an Urdu shepherd hit by a “smart bomb” dropped by a Navy bomber?

Where you stand is indeed determined by where you sit.  It’s easy being pro-military when your son is comfortably ensconced in some university.  Its easy taking a tough on crime approach until someone you know gets caught up in the system. It’s easy having all the answers until you’re bombarded with questions.

This place tears at my soul.  I am daily confronted by people I would have normally had no regard for.  And yet, I see a gang leader, a drug dealer, a murderer, and see my own failings, my own weaknesses.  Do you make a distinction between the man who kills in a drug deal gone bad and the marine who shoots a child in an Afghan village while on his third tour of duty?

And what of the Secret Service agent who solicits a prostitute in Columbia, a nation known as the “Thailand of the Americas” for its sex trade and use of underage females as escorts and prostitutes.  He’s fired.  Should he be charged with statutory rape, child sex abuse?

Where you are is largely determined by where you’ve been.

Prison is horrendous yet it’s caused me to ask myself fundamental questions about what I believe.  And ultimately, I think that’s what faith is about.  “Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments the Kingdom is based.”  Not a bad theory on which to base your life.  Not a bad lesson to learn while you’re in prison.  Not a bad place to stand.