Happy Veterans Day

To all you vets out there, Happy Veterans Day.

I told y'all before that my Dad was a Red Ball Express driver during World War II, and came home with campaign medals from the North African and European Theater of Operations. Hundreds of thousands of Black men from his generation served overseas during the war, and after fighting for freedom over there, came home to find not so much of it here. These men formed the vanguard of the coming Civil Rights movement.

Which makes me wonder about today's generation of veterans, and what the unintended results of their overseas service will turn out to be.

During the last election cycle, a lot of vets ran for seats in Congress, mostly on the Democratic side. Forgive me for not looking up the results of those races at this exact moment, but I seem to recall that a fair number actually won. As far as unintended consequences go, that's not a bad one.

On the hand, with all of the brain injuries resulting from this particular war, I can't help but wonder whether adequate mental (or any) healthcare will be the defining issue for this generation of veterans.

I don't think this war will advance the cause of Civil Rights in this country, but maybe it will reinvigorate the War Powers Act and prevent some future (or current) president from committing the country to war based on any old reason they can trump up.

Or maybe it will accelerate the reform of the healthcare system so that everyone residing in this, the richest country on earth has a reasonable chance at receiving adequate healthcare service when they need it.

In my opinion, both would be very welcome unintended consequences for this most unwelcome of wars. I'd be curious to hear your opinions too.