The Greatest Inequity

There has been an upsurge in concern over disparities among citizens, particularly income disparities, in the Western nations. It certainly is nothing new, it certainly is inevitable in a free society but it has a nice populist ring to it and one can always find something people can grab with outrage--as long as it's not politicians, musicians, sports figures or movie stars. But, with the many disparities in life, it is curious we would focus so on the disparities that are so common, so much a function of the production we all enjoy and so dependent upon luck. Certainly no one begrudges Pujols his hand eye coordination and his tremendous wrists or Gwyneth Paltrow her everything. No one wants to cripple him or scar her. Certainly no one wants to rein in Steve Jobs. And no one wants to substitute a bureaucrat for an entrepreneur. And so many of life's inequities--beauty, health, speed, coordination, grace, intelligence, drive, ambition, self-restraint, vision and three-dimensional visualization, continence, sensitivity, prudence, steadfastness, on and on--can not and should not be neutralized.

But there is a shameful inequity we can right: Soldiers and their families. There are certain members of society that fight our conflicts and certain members that do not. Indeed, while wars are raging, the American society seems purposefully trying to minimize the conflicts' effects among the noncombatants. Wolff points out that after Korea there was one Congressional Medal of Honor winner in the Greater New York area; in DeKalb County there were 23. Soldiers in this country come mostly from the South, mostly from soldier families, have strong family backgrounds. Most are religious, most are rural, some are racists, some are creationists, some are poorly educated. All of them and their families are self-sacrificing, poorly paid, subjected to danger and, generally, are not representative of the rest of the nation. And, in many segments, they are held in disregard, particularly because they are so different.

The soldier's experience is special; the regular community cannot duplicate it. But the soldier is more than an agent of the society, he is its extension, its reach. The society should rejoice in his success, mourn with his failures but, most importantly, be as much a part of him as it can. The members of the society must recognize the soldier as them.

The rest of the nation should do something to balance the inequity. Of all the inequities in American life, this is the least excusable.