War, like peace, always has a purpose. People die in battle, just as people live safe at home, for a reason. Sometimes those reasons are complex and then politics fades our memories. Pretty soon, our Memorial Days lack all memory of the real purposes of past heroic and sovereign actions. And then we despicably turn on our past by doing such things as politicizing the annual convention of families, friends and neighbors from across this great land who have served us with honor.
Every Utahn of good will should be appalled that some of our civic leaders driven by ideology, not the common good, would disrupt the annual celebration of The American Legion. That is what they will be doing. Protesters can claim any noble motive they seek, they can say they are protesting President Bush, but in the end they are insulting a gathering they should be thanking instead.
The American Legion was founded in 1919 in Paris as an outgrowth of World War I's Treaty of Versailles process, and was congressionally chartered later that same year. Its Preamble begins with "For God and Country . . . " Their community service is legendary. They still use words like "Americanism" and phrases such as "to make right the master of might." The Legion represents the public spirit of why Americans go to war and the idea of a just war.
The 3 million members of The American Legion know that Americans go to war to protect home and hearth, the "pursuit of happiness" emphasized in our great Declaration of Independence. Just two years ago, at their 86th annual convention, the Legion passed Resolution #401, a "Policy Statement on the Family," wherein they heartily endorsed the "natural family as the fundamental unit, inscribed in human nature and centered around the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage."
Many Utahns are familiar with those words. Certainly the citizens of Kanab will recognize them. Honest Americans fight just wars to defend and protect their families, faiths, and communities Ð and those of our neighbors across the globe in wisdom. This is the American way.
That politicians and protesters think of other reasons to fight wars is beside the point when a wonderful organization such as The American Legion comes to town. Its presence on Utah soil deserves the unspoiled homage of the president of the United States and his colleagues. What it does not deserve is the friendly-fire, or collateral damage depending upon motivations, from a handful of protesters trying to make politicized arguments at a very inopportune time.
If protesters must step on the graves of heroes, do it some other place and some other time. The visit by The American Legion is a time for celebration to honor American military veterans, the ultimate protesters against tyranny in defense of God and country.
Protests are an insult to veterans
---
Paul T. Mero is president of the Sutherland Institute, a conservative public policy think tank in Salt Lake City.
