A Primer for Veterans

A Primer for Veterans

I’m sorry great soldier; you were lied to and fooled
When you enlisted and we told you the rules
We promised you value, we promised you care
We gave solemn promise to see to your affairs

We said if you worked hard, were loyal and true
If you served your country then we’d care for you
You had but to be strong and do as you should
Defending our nation and standing for good

If you gave good service, then you would be set
Good jobs awaiting for you to accept
Canadians would treasure one such as you
There’d be parades and honours and many thank-you’s

We’d all support you, should you get hurt
Sacrifice in service being the noblest of wounds
We’d carry you home and see to your care
If it be crutches or braces or a limb or a chair

By chance if your mind went, lost in the horrors
Of witnessing things no one should observe
Then we’d be here to catch you, to hug you, to cry
To get you whatever to takes to survive

Or if you are unlucky and pay the ultimate price
Be awarded the Last Post, make a noble sacrifice
Leaving behind children and parents and a spouse
And a great lousy void in their life and their house

We promise to fill that, as best we can
To care for your loved ones, to look after your Nan
To provide for your children, see them through school
And support your wife - or husband - like you’d do

We make all these promises, we give solemn oath
If you serve us all, then we will protect you
The great social contract, an agreement so strong
It will never be broken, not by bullet nor bomb

You just sign here and say these few words
And our nation will guard you, just like you’ve heard
For there’s nothing so noble as the troops’ sacrifice
Guarding the country from bumps in the night

Remember those you protect, as you stand in the rain
Or the snow or the sun, on the hills or the plains
On deck of a ship in freezing below
Or sitting in aircraft, staring out the window.

Away from your family, away from your dog
Away from your comforts and living high on the hog
No beers on Fridays, no Saturday games
No sleep-lates then breakfasts-in-bed, more’s the shame

You’ll go where you’re sent; you’ll do as you’re told
You’ll hold your tongue and don’t be so bold
For service is obedience, it goes with the job
The rights you’re protecting ain’t yours, you poor slob

But be a good soldier or airman or sailor
Do your job well and earn what we pays ya
Or be a true Mountie and maintain the right
Even when we curse you for tickets at lights

Do all of that and we’ll do our bit
We’ll see to your needs when you’re no longer fit
To serve us all, it’ll be all so right
When it’s our turn to offer comfort at night

With pensions and schooling and job grants and aid
You’ll have so much support, why, you’ll have it made!
We honour our veterans; we support our troops
‘Course we’ll provide when you get cut loose!

You all believed us, you believed all those words
Who’d lie to a soldier or Mountie but a turd?
The Queen and the Maple Leaf, a promise so proud
A golden contract, a sacred vow

You poor, poor fools! We had no intention
Of keeping that contract, so don’t even mention
We can’t believe you believed US! How foolish you are!
We sat at home and sent you afar!

To work until broken, in body and mind
And crushed in spirit, and you all were blind
To our crossed fingers, to our dirty deals
When we couldn’t give you bullets or decent meals,
What made you think we had pensions waiting?
That wasn’t a contract; it was just fool-baiting.

We bilked you for service. We exploited your oath.
We took all you had and just left you with hope.
A hope so futile that we can’t believe
You still think we can fill it. Why, we’re nuttin but t’eives!

We stole your best years, your futures, your lives
Ripped you from children and husbands and wives
Gave you low pay and little more
And when you were broken, we gave you the door

Now you want something from us? You’ll see what you get.
Your job-skills are useless in the private set
We don’t want to hear ‘bout your stories of war
We put ribbons on our cars, you want something more?

Prove that we owe you, go ahead, and just try
We’ll fight you in court til the day that you die
That sacred contract is not written in stone
And when you fight now, you fight us alone

You say you were promised, that you are not lying
Well that social contract? It’s not legally binding
It’s not in the big books of our legal code
And our vast legal team says we need not uphold

The promises made, for we are in charge
We can do what we want to the veterans at large
We don’t even have to pay one red cent
You cannot make us, we’re the government

So you go and sue us, and you get your ruling
By the time we pay out, you’ll be sitting and drooling
We have greater concerns that ones such as you
We have a great crop of fresh new recruits

All ready to sign up, to take the oath
They believe all our words, as they are spoke
They’ll do their duty like you did before
And when they return, all broken and sore

They’ll find even less support than you got
They’ll be left on the streets, to live there and rot
It’s cheaper that way, and cuts must be made
There’s a recession and we’ve bills to pay

But not to you folks, we owe you naught
You signed of your free will, you know what bought
Go read the fine print, with your arse in a sling
You know what we’ll pay you? Not one goddamn thing.

You took us at our word, more the fool you
Our word means nothing, so what can you do?
You can beg for our help, you might appeal to our pride
But don’t you get it? We won’t pay ‘cause WE LIED!

Nation Peacekeepers Day address

I  thought I had posted this someplace already, but it seems not.  I wrote this for delivery to the crowd on National Peacekeepers Day in 2011.  Unfortunately, the day was windy, rainy, and cold, and turnout was poor, consisting of veteran peacekeepers, Our Duty members, and a lone reporter.  Given the conditions, I opted for brevity and shortened this on the spot, but kept the most important bits near the end.

Today being National Peacekeepers Day 2013, I felt I should share.  My opinions have not changed. - JRM

When Lester Pearson first proposed peacekeeping to the UN in 1947, I doubt he realized how much this would impact our national character.  Nor would he have seen the development of an entirely different type of soldier and RCMP officer. 

64 Years ago, faced with a crisis in Israel, Pearson presented the world with a brand new concept, with the idea that soldiers, could be engineers of peace instead of weapons of war.  Through the Israeli conflict and the Korean War, Pearson continued to prove that his idea was reasonable and practical, but it took the Suez Crisis before the world was ready to accept the proposal.  To end Suez, Canada led soldiers from Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Yugoslavia into Egypt with the goal of stopping the belligerents from fighting, with force if need be.  The United Nations Emergency Force - UNEF - became the first real peacekeeping mission.  And it would not have occurred, had not a balding, bespectacled, round-faced, son-of-a-methodist minister had the vision that soldiers could bring peace. 

In the decades since, despite our relatively small and frequently under-equipped military, Canada has led the world in peacekeeping.  Canada has been a significant contributor to missions in:

Egypt,

Congo,

Indonesia,

Cyprus,

the Middle East,

Israel-Syria,

Lebanon,

Sinai,

Namibia,

West Sahara,

Cambodia,

Somalia,

Croatia,

Haiti,

Rwanda,

Macedonia,

Bosnia,

Herzegovina,

Central Africa,

East Timor,

Kosovo,

Sierra Leone,

Democratic Republic of Congo,

Ethiopia-Entrea,

Sudan,

Darfur. 

And it is a well known fact that, regardless of where the troops come from, a Canadian is wanted to lead any peacekeeping mission.  Such is the legacy of Pearson. 

There is more to peacekeeping than saying “Please stop fighting” - It takes a special individual to fill this role.  Aggression is at the core of the human animal.  To hold one’s own aggression in check, in the teeth of conflict and chaos, requires depth of understanding, determination of will, and total dedication to the mission. 

Such qualities set peacekeepers apart from the rest of us, but if we are not diligent when planning their missions, those virtues will destroy those who serve.

In 1993, Canada sent General Romeo Dallaire to lead the United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda.  At its conception, UNAMIR was to oversee the implementation of the Arusha Peace Agreement.  The UN’s role was to witness the parties peacefully settle their differences through powersharing.

But in spring of 1994, in the middle of chaos and insanity, General Dallaire was ordered to do the impossible: to maintain the original mission and rules of engagement.  To stay uninvolved.  To only fire when fired upon.  Despite Dallaire’s arguments and reports of mass murder, he was ordered to stay out of the conflict - he was there to bear witness.  Dallaire did as he was ordered.  General Romeo Dallaire bore witness to 800 thousand deaths in 100 days.  He witnessed a genocide because that is what we ordered. 

The special qualities of the peacekeeper - understanding, determination, dedication - turned against Romeo Dallaire when we required him to place duty above principle.  We asked him to do the impossible.  And one thing we SHOULD know is that when you ask the impossible of a Canadian Peacekeeper, they deliver.  Dallaire delivered and suffered.  We destroyed a peacekeeper with his own virtues.

From Pearson’s idea to Dallaire’s ideals, we see the transformation of the peacekeeper from fighting man to defender of humanity.  What Dallaire understood - what you fellow peacekeepers understand - is that peacekeeping is not like national service.  Soldiers and police serve their country, caring for and defending their citizens.  Peacekeeping is vastly different.  You are not police, for often there are no laws to enforce.  You are not warriors, for there is no war to win.  The people involved are not your people. 

Peacekeepers serve humanity.  Humanity without division by nation or ethnicity, skin colour or language, religion or politics. 

Peacekeepers serve a principle.  A principle that transcends national interests.  A principle that goes beyond borders.  The principle that peace is not an ideal, but attainable, for all people.

You who have been peacekeepers, and those who were before, and those who will be later, know that to serve as a peacekeeper is to put yourself in harms way for that principle.  You serve to protect the innocent and to calm belligerents.  Peacekeepers are there to bring reason to the unreasonable, to bear witness to the unbearable, and to be human amongst the inhumane.  You are willing to sacrifice yourself in the name of humanity.

Therefore, on behalf of humanity, I want to thank those who are here and those who could not be, for your service, your dedication, and your sacrifice.  You have made the world better and the world thanks you for that.

(Coverage of that day can be found here.  Thanks to Ashley Fitzpatrick for turning out, not only with notebook, but also with video.)

To find out more about peacekeeping,

visit the UN.

What Is Your Support Worth?

Do you support the troops?  Do you care about veterans?  Wear red on Fridays?  Have a yellow ribbon on your car?

GREAT!

Let's take it to the next step: digging in and helping one specific veteran.

I've got one: a guy who  served in Croatia, who helped rescue the Drin Hospital patients, who has a number of injuries, especially PTSD.  Veterans Affairs made an error in 2004 and deprived him of his pension for months.  By the time he got what he was owed, his house was in ruins, his finances in tatters, and he'd attempted suicide.  Eight years later, after a high-profile hunger strike, he has a letter of apology from VAC.  Until this month, he had been homeless.  His home is still  in ruins and his finances still in tatters.  He still owes a mortgage on the uninhabitable property, which is in foreclosure.

It was his grandparents home.

As if that wasn't enough, we have discovered a very active campaign has been working to discredit him.  A few people have been contacting potential donors and telling them his plight is all a scam.

It isn't.

Every word of his plight is true and can be checked by anyone.   Google: Fabien Melanson Veteran *

$5000 gets his property back in his possession.  That's where we start, now.

So the question I have is this:

Will you help me with this one veteran?

The entire time I've been trying to throw him a rope, others have been reeling it short.

Will YOU help rescue just one veteran? Please?  You wear the red every week, you wear the ribbon with pride, you talk about heroes... will you do something to help one?

Or is that all just talk?

Donation info:
--------------

Anyone can help, every donation counts.  If 5000 give a loony, this vet gets his house back from the lawyers.  If 2500 people skip coffee, we can do it.  If 500 people skip the drive-thru... you get the idea.

Paypal/email transfer to fabien@ourduty.org or poca@ourduty.org

 OR

Donations can be made to TD Bank (direct or wire transfer)
Transit #: 05023
Institution #: 004
Account #: 6418137
Name: Jeff Rose-Martland for Fabien Melanson

 OR
Cheques & Money Orders
Payable to: Jeff Rose-Martland for Fabien Melanson

Send to:
Fix Fabien's House
4 Neville Pl.
St. John's, NL
A1E 2E7

We will accept everything from copper pennies to gold bars.  But please, no rubber cheques.

----
*there's another Fabien  Melanson who is a musician and all over the net.  Include 'veteran' to find the right one.

Peace & War

As most of you know, I've spent much of the past 3 months working hard on the campaign for Veterans' Benefits. It's been tiring but worth doing.  If you want to know more about that, visit here.

I've consequently spent a lot of time with veterans and I've learned several things:
1 - Owing to US media domination and an underfunded Canadian TV & Film industry, we really know very little about our Forces & RCMP - what they do, how they do, where they go, and why. 
2 - A very high percentage of veterans are writers, of varying skill levels, many of them working on books.
3 - Veterans sure do talk a lot.  Unless you have a clear agenda and are prepared to rigidly enforce it, a meeting will quickly disintegrate into a veterans' storytelling circle.

So I've decided to open my blog up to the vets!

Veterans of Canada: tell us your tales!  Tell us about the funny thing that happened that time, or the horrible thing you witnessed, or the things you have thought about, or the places you have been.  Write anything: short story, poem, essay, email, even just a joke.  Don't worry about keeping it clear or family friendly: we want to hear all the dirty ditties and harsh realities of your experience.  Talk about war, about keeping peace, about winter exercises, about domestic deployment, about walking a beat, about getting shot.  The most common statement I have heard over the past few months is "You civilians don't understand."  My counter is this "Us civilians don't know."  So tell us and perhaps we will understand. 

There's no minimum word count.  Try to stick under a 5000 work max, just to keep the posts of reasonable reading length.  You can post here as a reply, or email me: rosemartland@gmail.com with questions, or if you would rather remain anonymous.

Who knows?  If there is enough interest, I may look into releasing them as a book. (In which case, author's would be contacted regarding publishing rights, etc.)

NOTE: Please no VAC horror stories.  This about your service experiences.  You can send yourr VAC complaints to me via Our Duty.

We Stand of Guard for... Not Them.

CBC: The swelling anger at Veterans Affairs

This is a ridiculous situation. Forces pay itself is by no means great wages and the treatment of veterans is appalling. But this can by no means be laid at Harper's door, or the Conservatives, or the Liberals. This has been going on for far too long to point the finger at any single government or individual. Who is at fault? Us, the citizens of Canada.

We have decided to have an armed force. We have decided that our troops should be sent on missions. We have required of them that they put body and soul on the line, for us, for our country, and for others. We ask them to put others ahead of themselves, to follow orders, to keep peace, to wage war. We ask these men and women to sacrifice their families, their sanity, their bodies, that we can feel secure and proud. In return, we offer low wages, little support, and a cold shoulder. If we think of the soldiers at all, we regard them as being of low intelligence or freaks. After all, who else would willingly do such work?

We should be ashamed.

We should be ashamed of our ignorance, of our disregard for those who serve us, of our tolerence of their mistreatment. We should be ashamed that we buy a poppy in November and feel this is tribute. We should be ashamed that we are hypocrites: that we believe in peacekeeping but not the peacekeeper, in the wars but not the troops, in the aid for others but not for our own.

If we, as citizens, have any integrity then we, as a country must make amends. If we want and need troops then we must be willing to pay for them. We must demand any and all troops be paid well for their service, be treated well for their sacrifice, and be well cared for in their aftermaths. To do less, to accept less, is to lessen ourselves and our nation.