The Middle East in the News
•Your Name & Date: Kaki Elgin, Nov. 12
•Title of Editorial: The Nuances of Celebrating Veterans Day
•Source of Article — Include a Link
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/soldiershome/archive/2008/11/11/the-nuances-of-celebrating-veterans-day.aspx
•Article Summary
Time: Yesterday
Place: The US, Iraq
Key People: Veterans
Main Ideas: Our definition of the word “veteran” is being forced to change. Growing up, the author (and we students, I suppose) pictured veterans as the old, uniformed WWI, WWII, and Vietnam veterans who marched down Main Street during the Veterans Day parade. This generation was never faced with veterans returning from war. As even the war in Iraq has changed—from when the author served as fought against Iraqi citizens to five years later when the author revisited to discover soldiers working with Iraqi citizens—so has our definition of “veteran.”
•Your Response to Article: My family has never really celebrated Veterans Day. Half of my family was farmers—meaning no service—and the other half moved to the US a generation ago. So I’ve never really had any experience with veterans, no ‘grandpa stories.’ When I began playing the French horn, I began to experience veterans—and Veterans Day—and I can tell you that seeing admittedly old men tear up when you play their divisions’ respective songs is moving. However, my vision of veterans still consists of this—the old men. Perhaps I’m a few years too young or don’t have friends who are of the right—shall we say—social standing to know people who have gone to Iraq, to Afghanistan, to any place we are currently occupying. However, I can attempt to understand what Botti is saying. With this war, we need to step back and redefine ourselves, and we need to realize that we are dealing with a war—not just a far away conflict that doesn’t affect our everyday world.
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