For One Day Of Remembrance, Another One Is Badly Needed

Andy Rooney is a journalist that has surly had his ups and downs in career, as well as his life.

At 90 years of age now, the CBS veritable figure may be well appreciated and beloved, hated and considered a racist for his controversial comments that he has made over the years, or looked at in both of those ways by the people who have seen him on their television sets.

But despite whether you have appreciated him or not throughout his career as a news television figure, Rooney on the recent episode of "60 Minutes" presented a viewpoint that everyone should agree. It's a pure humane thought from him, on this day of remembrance and respect for our country's veterans.

Especially being a veteran himself.

The message of Ronney, in admist of the tiring wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, along with addition motivation to human civilization not evolving out of the war mindset through the centuries of history is this:

"A No War Day"

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keep this calendar on my desk, and while I don't look at it very often I notice that this Wednesday is Veterans Day. It's one of ten federal holidays that we have. Well, I'm a veteran and I hate that name.

Considering that we aren't technically at war now, there's an awful lot about war in the news even when it's not something like Veterans Day. I suppose that's because there's so much fighting in the world. There are half a dozen small wars going on right now - some of them in places most of us have never been to or even never heard of before.

Too many young men and women with a whole life ahead of them are getting killed before they have a chance to live it and for what?

Of all the things that men do - historically mostly men - fighting a war to kill other men is the most uncivilized.

Wars have been fought through time and we may think we're more civilized now than people were 100 or 500 years ago but there's no sign that fighting wars is a thing of the past. There's always one going on somewhere.

Eight of my classmates - friends really - in school and college were killed in World War II. I've had 60 years of life that those eight friends never had. We call this a civilization?

More than 5,200 American men and women, kids really - have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. It may be a small number in two small wars but if you're one of those killed or even a father or mother of one, there's nothing small about it.

Why not, instead of commemorating Veterans Day, we establish and work on what we could call a "No War Day".

The name doesn't have much of a ring to it but a day like that would be worth celebrating.

How about it?

In the midst of the events of the 20th century, and all the chilling anecdotes that we have read or hear about, it is still a surprise that we really have yet to have an official day like this. "World Peace Day" isn't really acknowledged like that, especially here on a full national scale.

Though I didn't like the fact that Rooney did slightly belittle Veteran's Day there (I would have said "in addition" in comparison to "instead", but that's just me), you could understand his perspective there. Especially when his mind is certainly centered on the friends he lost years ago. (And you can easily repeat this for Memorial Day as well.)

Matt Yglesias, via Duncan Black, talks about the poignancy of how Armistice Day is eclipsed in this country today by Veteran's Day:

Something that I think is missing from American political culture is the thing that in Europe is taken to be the lesson of World War One, namely that a war can be bad for reasons other than it being lost. France and Britain were ultimately victorious in the war, but it was ruinous nonetheless. What was needed from the political leadership of the time was a way to avoid the war, not a way to win it.

In America, though, evaluation of military endeavors is ruthlessly governed by considerations of efficacy. To lose a war, like in Vietnam, is a bad thing. But there seems to be a growing conventional wisdom that the surge has somehow redeemed Iraq and that the only thing we’re allowed to talk about with regard to Afghanistan is whether we can or will “win.”

The lack of pacifistic mainstream thought in America is really stunning nowadays.

And it says something when a "Thank you" by me is given to Rooney, when it is an idea that we should all cheering for and vociferating throughout the 50 States.

And an idea that we should lead in vociferating around the world.