Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part the Second
I've started and stopped this essay several times. It's painful to write, and reading some of the comments, clearly painful to read. I'm sorry, but I keep coming back to it because something profoundly disturbing has happened. I'm talking about "stolen valor." Maybe "valor theft" is a better description. I'm not sure. Either way, those are fighting words among fighting men and women. They are also corrosive words that will burn and leave a mark long after the media spotlight moves on to the next shiny object. Here's why...
Most people remember the first time they were shot at. That is what prompted a soldier who served in Bosnia to write about her experience at Tuzla:
I am quite angry that what I and my fellow soldiers worked to achieve should be used as a playing card to build up a political nominee and tear down another. This is not what those of us who actually risked our lives were working for, we were trying to maintain a Peace Keeping mission in a country that had been ravaged by ethnic cleansing.
Tammi K Hetherington (nee Jann)
(formerly)
SPC
141 Signal Battalion, 22nd Signal Brigade, 1st Armored Division, US Army
Task Force Eagle
Although we have grown cynical about our politicians, duty and honor are not empty words to most people. Those are the values that motivate people to reach beyond themselves long after they should have given up.
As powerful as those values are, there is something more powerful: the bond between men and women who serve together. That bond is what drives people to go above and beyond the call of duty. They don't do it for glory or medals. They do it for each other.
Those left to bury the dead know the fallen gave their last full measure so others may live. That is a debt than can never be repaid. That is why there is a sacred duty to defend the honor and protect the memory of those who fell for their comrades.
People who would steal even one iota of that valor and falsely claim it for themselves defile the memory of those who paid so dearly for an honor they would gladly trade for just one more hour in this world.
This is why I think "Stolen Valor" will be Clinton's albatross. Like the Ancient Mariner, she brought this curse upon herself by destroying something sacred. As I ponder her act and consider the Ancient Mariner's fate, my prayer for her is sincere. I pray that her torment ends April 22nd. The alternative would be cruel.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part the Fourth
As powerful as those values are, there is something more powerful: the bond between men and women who serve together. That bond is what drives people to go above and beyond the call of duty. They don't do it for glory or medals. They do it for each other. 