Today is Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day across the Commonwealth, the anniversary of the 1918 armistice. At Gallipoli, Turkey and Australia honor each other's dead, under words attributed to Atatürk: "There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets."
Some places we can start
- Personal. The names on your town's memorial, or a folded flag at a funeral you went to. Who were they to you?
- What you'd die for. Your kids, your country, your faith, a stranger in a fire? Anything else?
- Who gets to ask. A president, a draft board, your commander, your own conscience? What makes the ask legitimate, if anything?
- The ones who went. Sacrifice, duty, a job, or a way out of a small town? Does why they went change what's owed, if anything?
- Former enemies. At Gallipoli, Turkey and Australia mourn each other's dead. What would it take to do that in a war that's still going on?
- Everyone or a few. Israel and Turkey draft; the US hasn't since 1973. What changes in a country when anyone might be asked? Would you want your own kid to be?