Words May Comfort But It’s What We Do Next That's Most Important
The vigils and the videos, the uniform patches and helmet decals, the public declarations and the moments of silence are as appropriate as they are comforting, but they’re not enough.
Mike Tomlin was at an emotional loss for words in the immediate aftermath of Squirrel Hill.
A lot of us were, and still are.
I was, too.
Until I found them in a frame on the wall.
They were between the letter my dad had received from President Truman after World War II, and the one sent by President Clinton shortly after my father’s death.
They were the words of George D. Wahl, Brigadier General, U.S. Army, Commanding, War Department Personnel Center, Fort Knox, Kentucky.
They composed a message to those leaving the armed forces upon demobilization.
There was no date, but the best approximation is it was distributed in early 1946.
The words still resonate in the wake of Squirrel Hill.
The words still matter.
“You have seen in the lands where you worked and fought and where many of your comrades died, what happens when the people of a nation lose interest in their government. You have seen what happens when they follow false leaders. You have seen what happens when a nation accepts hate and intolerance.”
We’re seeing it again.
We’re seeing it again because we haven’t been paying close enough attention.
We’ve become confused, complacent, complicit, corrupt, disinterested or just plain lazy.
We’ve been swinging at curves in the dirt for so long we’ve forgotten, not only how to get on base but what game we’re supposed to be playing.
“We are determined that what happened in Europe and Asia must not happen in our country,” General Wahl insisted some 70-plus years ago.
Are we still that?
“Back in civilian life you will find that your generation will be called upon to guide our country’s destiny. Opportunity for leadership is yours. The responsibility is yours. The nation which depended on your courage and stamina to protect it from its enemies now expects you as individuals to claim your right of leadership, a right which you earned honorably and which is well deserved.
“Start being a leader as soon as you put on your civilian clothes. If you see intolerance and hate, speak out against them. Make your individual voices heard, not for selfish things, but for honor and decency among men, for the right of all people.”
The war for honor and decency, for the right of all people rages on.
The responsibility is ours, not the army’s, to fight it this time.
We have to do more than come together in the face of tragedy.
We have to be more than Pittsburgh Strong.
We have to be Pittsburgh Proactive, Pittsburgh Determined, Pittsburgh Committed and Pittsburgh Involved, just as they must in Parkland, Fl., Las Vegas, Annapolis, Md., and in so many other places in this once-great nation where such atrocities were previously unimaginable.
The vigils and the videos, the uniform patches and helmet decals, the public declarations and the moments of silence are as appropriate as they are comforting, but they’re not enough.
“Remember, too, that No American can afford to be disinterested in any part of his government, whether it is county, city, state, or nation. Choose your leaders wisely — that is the way to keep ours the country for which you fought.”
Squirrel Hill, sadly, is the latest in a succession of horrific events that make that place hard to remember.
There’s an election on Tuesday.
Choose your leaders wisely.
Those four words seem an appropriate place to start.
