According to Merriam-Webster, the word “veteran” comes from a Latin adjective, veteranus, describing long experience. The first known use in English carried the meaning of an old soldier who served for a long time. But okay, let’s pretend that the original meaning isn’t valid because it was borrowed as a word describing a soldier, then shouldn’t we also go after people who call themselves “veterans” because they spent a single term of enlistment in the armed forces, and especially those who never had a tour of duty?
I was born before 2001; I read the letter in question back in 2002. The details are different, but tenor of the reaction was the same back then: misrepresentation of the content, the hyperventilation, and twisting it to fit political agendas.
Really, this is young people doing exactly what they should do: Ignore the propaganda. Go back to the primary sources, examine them, and engage in critical thinking. Osama bin Laden was correct in his diagnosis of many issues. Trying to hide it from the younger generation, and browbeating them when they see the huge cracks and glaring contradictions in the story won’t work forever.
First, this is a long comment, and I don’t want to come off as dissing it. I agree with you. Except for that concluding thought.
I used to think that that was true, women vs. men for voting rights. But about ten years ago, I wandered into the Berkeley Historical Society. They had a bunch of materials on display about the women’s suffrage movement, including just boxes of documents. One of the first ones that I pulled out was a poster for an anti-suffrage meeting. A meeting organized by women.
In fact, they had lots of documentation about anti-suffrage efforts by the society women of Berkeley. That completely shocked me, given Berkeley’s crunchy reputation. But I did more research later, and found that it was not at all unusual.
Up until the early years of the 20th century, most women were against it! Even when the 15th Amendment passed, a large minority of women still opposed it. As well, quite a lot of men supported it. (Obviously, they had, to since they were the ones voting to pass it.)
Anyway, the framing of the issue as women demanding the vote from men is oversimplified.
So you're a veteran in your field? What war did you fight to earn that title?! ( files.catbox.moe )
Had a laugh when I saw this post, he was constantly defending himself in the comments as if the US army owns the word “veteran”
The paranoid, predictable panic over Osama bin Laden and TikTok - The Washington Post ( www.washingtonpost.com )
Without paywall: archive.is/lkOWM
I'm a trans man. I didn't realize how broken men are ( newsweek.com )