There have been several people writing about Time Magazine naming "the American soldier" as Person of the Year. The majority of the comments have been referring to this as an honor. I share the opinion of the bloggers who have written about this event that those who serve our country in the military should be honored; unfortunately, people are forgetting that when Time Magazine names the Person of the Year, it is NOT usually intended as an honor.
The Person of the Year is the individual who affected the news the most, for good or for ill. Hence Adolf Hitler was named Man of the Year in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939, and Ayatulla Khomeini in 1979. That's not the company that I particularly want anyone I feel should be honored to share. We should find a real way to honor those who are serving our country, starting with writing our Senators and Representatives telling them that they should be ashamed at how poorly we treat veterans. Treatment at VA hospitals should be on par with the best hospitals in the country, not among the worst.
If enough citizens take up their responsibility to hold our elected representatives accountable for this deplorable state of affairs, perhaps our government will work the way it was meant to and the situation will be set right.
UPDATE: After reading all of the online Time Magazine articles, it does appear as if the editorial staff was trying to acknowledge the contributions made by those in service to our country. I am glad they chose to recognize the sacrifices made by so many.
Posted by Jack at 10:48 on Sunday 21 December 2003 | Trackbacks (1)Jack, while I appreciate the double-link and where your heart is... I still think it's an honor, even if they maybe just did it because they couldn't bring themselves to put GWB on the cover, as a commenter to my post suggests.
Yes, while we share an archive with Joe Stalin, Adolf Hitler and some other less-than-savory people, we're also in there with FDR, Churchill, Marshall, Truman, Lech Walensa, and ourselves, the American Fighting Man, in 1950.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at December 21, 2003 06:05 PMSorry for the double trackback. I did an edit in Movable Type and for some unknown reason it sent another trackback ping. Feel free to delete one of them.
Actually, after reading the Time articles online, it does look like they are indeed attempting to honor our soldiers, which is an unmitigated good thing. I hope you didn't interpret what I wrote as anything negative towards our men and women in uniform; I just harp on the way we treat veterans because I find it shameful. I have a few close friends who are veterans who avoid going to VA hospitals, even when they're not covered by insurance. I want to do everything I can to get that changed for the better.
Posted by: Jack at December 21, 2003 06:52 PM