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Show 'AMERICAN LEGION' AND 'VETERAN' ARE BECOMING ACCEPTED AS SYNONYMS Recently the Wall Street Journal carried an article report-' report-' g a surprising trend towards conservation among American College students. The article stated this was shown by the 'ieavy sale of the book "Conscience of a Conservative" by Senator Barry Goldwater. J ' . ' v 3 ' This article is mentioned because there was one quote which I liked: "These students don't wart to become veterans of future wars, J and they are sure that the best way of staying out of The American Legions of the future is to keep Soviet Russia in its place right now". Without being partisan at all, it would seem that these students should be commended com-mended for an awareness of a serious situation situa-tion and the part that they may have to play in it. It seems so much more healthy than the so called sophisticated approach we see so often as shown by the sneering use of the , Lloyd Wignall WOrds : Veteran, super - patriot, professional Natl Field veterans, etc., and by the May, 1960, demon- Representative stration in San Francisco. We of the American Legion don't want "future veterans." veter-ans." We do, however, want our young people to have an awareness of our way of life that would create a willingness to become veterans if that need arises. We would further want them to wear the title "Veteran" proudly. We would further hope that they could belong proudly to an organization organiza-tion such as The American Legion. Because of the intense public- , must assume if America is to j remain free. All veterans feel their sacrifices sacri-fices were vital. They can assure as-sure that they were by taking an active part in The American Legion. Le-gion. Our job is to make them aware, to make them realize that still more effort is needed to complete the job so capably started during war time; to make them realize that that effort can best be put forth in The American Amer-ican Legiom. ity, all of us are aware of the New York high school student who refused The American Legion Le-gion Medal at his graduation because, be-cause, in his words, he "could not agree with the policies of The American Legion." We would not deny this young man the right to form his own opinions. At the same time, you wonder just what policies of The American Legion he is in disagreement dis-agreement with. Could it be our Junior Baseball program? Could it be Boys or Girls State? Could it be the Oratorical Contest? Could it be our activities in Scouting? Could it be our Child Welfare Program? Could it be our efforts to promote patriotism? patrio-tism? This New York student aside, many powerful Americans do hate The American Legion. The reason, whether admitted or not, is The American Legion's staunch fight against communism and those who would aid it. In many subtle ways the name of The American Legion is smeared and belittled. The individual in-dividual Legionnaire is not above receiving the same treatment on a more personal basis. Along with this effort is a similar sim-ilar campaign to make light of the word "veteran." I am not referring to the individual indi-vidual veteran, although The American Legion must ever be alert and available to see that justice is done for that lone vet-I vet-I eran who needs assistance. I am not necessarily even re-; re-; ferring to the collective veterans of America despite the sacrifices ' that have been made in the defense de-fense of freedom and country by this group. Rather it is the "idea" and the "ideal" represented in the word "veteran" itself. It is the willingness will-ingness of the citizen soldier to serve his country, to expose himself him-self to danger and hardship in a eood cause and to submerge All of us who are concerned for the future recognize the critical crit-ical need to instill this "ideal" of patriotism and love of country coun-try in the minds and the hearts of our future leaders the Youth of America. Each generation must have a willingness to meet the problems of its own times. Every effort of The American Legion to increase its membership member-ship eventually comes down to two fundamentals. We use various var-ious slogans, we set dates, we alter our approach, but the fundamentals fun-damentals are still there. First we must ask the veteran to join The American Legion, and second, they must stay in the organization. Experience has shown that we don't get the asking and we don't get the continuity unless the words, "The American Legion" Le-gion" mean something in the community, in the state, and in the nation. This means an active Post, because be-cause The American Legion is still no more than the combined total of its 17,000 Posts. Ex-amples Ex-amples such as 30 members in 1958, 160 in 1959 and 60 in 1960 show that only half of the job was done. This article was started with a reference to a statement where "veterans of future wars" and "The American Legions of the future" were used interchangeably. interchange-ably. This isn't unusual. In the minds of many the ideals expressed ex-pressed in the words "The American Amer-ican Legion" and the ideals expressed ex-pressed in the word "veteran" are one and the same. In developing The American Legion we are developing a respect re-spect for the highest ideals expressed ex-pressed by the word "veteran." There cannot be a community with an active Post where the young people are not more acutely acute-ly aware of the obligations they ' his personal interest to the protection, pro-tection, preservation and advancement ad-vancement of this nation. |