As November continues to fly by and with Veterans Day upon us, people are gearing up to show their “support” for the troops. There is one small problem with the yearly celebration of the trials of our service members: veterans and the rest of the populace seem to be disconnected.

Although there should be appreciation given to the veterans of our country, there is a better way to do it than preaching nationalism and thanking them for protecting our freedoms. Unless you have been there, there is no true understanding of what those service members and veterans did while serving in the Armed Forces.

Many veterans that I know and work with have a problem with being thanked for the service that they gave to this country. It’s not because they aren’t proud Americans, or that they hate the country that we call home, but rather that they are aware there is a disconnect between what the general public is aware of and what actually happens in the fleet and on the battlefield.

The punchline “support the troops” is used all over the place and never more than before we go to war or when we are glorifying our veterans. October 7 marked 12 years in Afghanistan and close to that in Iraq. If a person states that they do not support the wars, then we as a country have been taught to assume that person does not support veterans and servicemembers.

This false sense of nationalism/patriotism is a major part of the disconnect and only isolates veterans further than their own experiences do. Actually supporting the troops could look more like being disgusted by the DOD’s own statics that a veteran takes his or her own life every 36 hours, or that there are more homeless veterans than homeless non-veterans in the streets of America, and action could be taken to help resolve these issues.

Voltairine De Cleyre was well aware of the issues that could arise from a strong indoctrination of patriotism and she made this clear in her essay Anarchism & American Traditions prior to World War I. There have been writers and speakers throughout time that have talked about the divide between the general public and the military. The Army Times released the new deployment schedule for the remainder of 2013 last month. More than 9,000 troops are to be deployed to Afghanistan before the end of the year. This came in the wake of the Government shutdown and was not noticed by many outside of the circles of those affected.

As the number of returning veterans continues to increase the gap between what is seen during war and what is reported about war will also continue to grow. Don’t ask a veteran if they ever killed anyone, be aware that fireworks and PTSD don’t mix and help rebuild our community. Rather than contribute to the isolation and disconnect felt by service members and veterans by thanking them for their service, welcome them home with arms open and a handshake.

ldaniel@mavs.coloradomesa.edu