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| Serving the People of Lamoille County with News Since 1881 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Volume 123 No 10 No 5569 May 1, 2007 Thursday Morrisville, VT 05661 Web Edition |
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News & Citizen
P.O. Box 369 Morrisville, Vermont 05661 802-888-2212 webmaster dan@kingdomsedge.com |
Things Look This Way to Me
Editorial by J.B. McKinley 4/17/08
Top of the List – Good or Bad?
Back in 1865, when the Civil War ended, it was clear that the State of Vermont had participated with its manpower – heavily. One in seven Vermonters who went to war never came back. Not much has changed in the 21st Century. Vermont is at the top of a USA Today list of our servicepeople’s death rates in the Iraq War. Our death rate is 29 per million of the state’s total population. Only the five other states with the smallest populations are even close: Alaska, 23.4; South Dakota, 22.6; North Dakota, 21.9; and Wyoming, 21.
Vermont’s rate of soldiers killed is two or three times higher than the rate of more populous states, for example, Texas at 15.2 and New York and Florida at 9.
We all can speculate why Vermont tops this grim statistical list. I think the fact that our armed services are all voluntary has something to do with it. Then, too, the money offered (an Army private’s base pay is $1,245 per month) probably looks a lot better to a Vermonter just out of high school than it does to an urban high schooler. To some extent, this answer looks like we’re back to the “red” and “blue” state differences. Bucking the trend, Vermont is a blue state. Is patriotism one of those differences? Is front line patriotism different from picket line patriotism? In Vermont, it appears that one can’t tie in statewide voting tendencies with enlistment. Does this indicate a deep schism among Vermont’s population, just as appears to be the case in our Legislature?
Certainly, front line patriotism potentially has fatal consequences, the sword of Damocles hangs not nearly as precariously above the picket line types. Recently with 37,684 National Guard personnel in Iraq, nearly a quarter of our force, that’s a lot of volunteers, who disproportionately represent rural, underpopulated states. Is this good or bad? Does it matter? Should it be fixed? Would this mean “the draft?” There is much to think about indicated by Vermont’s sacrifice.
I think many of us feel quite proud of Vermont’s involvement in the Civil War. We seem to accept that war as having been about preserving the union and freeing the slaves. But, of course, to others it was about state’s rights and two systems of economics. What will history decide Iraq was about? Oil, economics, imperialism, spreading democracy, defense?
