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American Stories: The American Military

Published on July 4, 2020 in Community/Featured/Headline by Janet McGovern

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

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Before I was a writer, I was an Air Force brat, and before I was an Air Force brat, my father was a mechanic in Northern China in World War II, keeping P-38s flying through daily strafing. He spent his 23rd birthday on a freight train, being evacuated beyond the reach of the Japanese.

A year before Pearl Harbor, Daddy had volunteered for the Army Air Corps. And yet when that terrible war ended, he couldn’t find a calling as compelling as “the service.” After a brief hiatus, he reenlisted for a 20-year career in the United States Air Force. That meant for the duration, every few years he and Mother —and subsequently three daughters —packed up everything to go wherever Uncle Sam ordered. No arguments. Mother and Daddy had to listen to three squabbling little girls in the back seat (“Your skirt’s on my dress!”) during those long cross-country drives from one godforsaken military base to the next, in service of our nation.

When I think of the best of America, I think of our military, and I’m not alone. The military consistently earns the highest rank of all 15 institutions in Gallup’s annual rating.

Duty. Honor. Valor. Service above self.

They’re not the animating ideals for your average occupation. Every person who leaves behind civilian life to volunteer takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That, of course, doesn’t mean every soldier and sailor meets the highest standards at all times; likewise, the particular wars and missions they’re sent out on may be misguided. But our democracy depends on an apolitical military which answers the call of duty, whatever it may be.

My first learning moment came toward the end of Daddy’s assignment with NATO in France in the mid-1950s. It hardly needs pointing out that this was a country we’d saved not many years before from the Nazis. Yet on a drive through the countryside, our family saw a message someone painted on a retaining wall: “Yankee Go Home.” He shrugged it off, like all solid, turn-the-other-cheek citizen-soldiers are expected to do.

Daddy’s last Air Force stint took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the five of us were living at a radar station in the Mojave Desert. I was the “paperboy” delivering the Los Angeles newspapers to 20 homes at the base, every morning bearing frightening updates about a nuclear strike that could well have taken out nearby Edwards Air Force Base. And us too. My sixth-grade science fair project was about how to tell when it’s safe to come out after a nuclear blast. Our little base was on constant high alert, yet the average American couldn’t possibly have realized how military personnel at remote posts all over the world were quietly going about the business of preparing for war. They still are.

Like many of my generation, I questioned why we were in Vietnam and was swept up in arguments that were more emotional than rational. But the regard I always maintained for our military has deepened over the decades, especially in this time of all-volunteer forces. In putting others first, they and their families sacrifice comfort, wealth and personal independence; the military personnel, sometimes even their lives. Our military leads the way with humanitarian assistance after disasters, such as the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004, when service members delivered food and other supplies to devastated Southeast Asian countries.

When I think of “public service,” this grown-up brat salutes the American military.

Climate magazine editor Janet McGovern is a former newspaper reporter and book author.

Perspectives:

American Stories: An American lens

Published on July 4, 2020 in Community/Featured/Headline by Jim Kirkland

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

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My years as a photographer have taken me to locations nationally and internationally. Assignments to Cuba, Israel, Northern Ireland, Jamaica and Mexico were a few that exposed me to great diversity — and conflicts. Outside the warm safe bubble I had grown up in, I discovered a fascinating world of cultural differences that forced me to reevaluate my view of the world.

Each situation taught a respect for the passions, traditions and customs of others. Being seen as a foreigner taught me what it was to be an American. Whether wandering the streets of Havana, Ocho Rios or Belfast, I was aware that I was conspicuous — a foreigner.

But I’ve had to learn on assignments in America that I’m operating on someone else’s turf too. At times I can feel like a foreigner in my own country.

We take pride in America being a melting pot, a welcoming home for people from all over the world. Our diversity makes us stronger. But taking someone’s picture is very personal, and sometimes I have to remind myself that everyone doesn’t necessarily operate on the same cultural page, even in Redwood City.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Little Havana, Florida, where I was photographing and interviewing Cuban Americans and expatriates. From Bay of Pigs veterans, still dreaming for the violent overthrow of the Castro regime, to idealistic university students, political asylum seekers and “Pedro Pans” (adults who were born in Cuba but brought to the U.S. as children), passions ran hot. To lose sight of that and appear anything but neutral was dangerous.

Didn’t matter if I was in Alaska, Montana, Wisconsin, New York or Tennessee; I was often seen as an outsider, ignorant of local convention and, if not respectful, prone to social missteps.

I can’t help but think my wanderings helped me view others here at home differently as I take photographs. Critical thinking and conflict resolution have become subjects worth being mindful of.

Bottom line: I discovered I didn’t know what it means to be an American until I left my country. Or gain appreciation of it until I photographed the world beyond our shores.

Mark Twain put it best when he said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Jim Kirkland is the Creative Director of Climate Magazine with 40 years experience as a photographer.

Perspectives:

American Stories: The Vote

Published on July 3, 2020 in Community/Featured/Headline by Staff

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

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I am very passionate about voting. I have voted in every local, state and federal election since registering to vote at 21. Each time I have twisted the lever or completed my mail-in ballot I have thought of Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Susan B. Anthony and the other suffragists who endured so much in order for American women like me to have the right to vote. I honor them with my vote. And I honor the men and women who fought and those that died protecting my right to vote. It is by voting that we truly participate in democracy.

There are a number of countries that have compulsory voting; their citizens not only are required to vote but face fines or losing civil rights if they do not. There are also countries whose citizens are not allowed to vote for their leaders. And there are places where armed military is present at polling places to intimidate voters. In America we choose to vote and we do so safely and with no intimidation.

It is the responsibility of all Americans to be informed voters. As Thomas Jefferson said, “A well informed electorate is a prerequisite for democracy.” Voting is how we make our voices heard. Voting is how we effect change. November 3, 2020, is a presidential election but it is local elections that have the most impact. City councils, the board of supervisors, school district trustees, the sheriff, the district attorney, judges. This November and every election let your voice be heard.

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” –Samuel Adams

Barb Valley is retired from a technology career at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space. Chairman of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association, she also served 12 years on Redwood City’s Library Board.

Perspectives:

American Stories: American unity

Published on July 3, 2020 in Community/Featured/Headline by Staff

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

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Our national Independence Day is upon us and it is a day taken to celebrate America the land of the free. We celebrate with barbecues, parades, street fairs and block parties. Growing up as a daughter to immigrant parents we shared pride in being able to partake in honoring America. As graduations were held, goals were met, bonuses earned they were all reminders that the American dream was attainable. We felt lucky to be a part of the melting pot, yet these things haven’t changed so why does this year feel so different?

Is it because we’re seeing our first pandemic in 100 years? Sadly we will not be celebrating with our loved ones. Is it because we are experiencing “civil unrest?” as so many have deemed it. This country has evolved because of its people. The people have time and time again risen and pushed the glass ceiling and we continue to see that today.

The year 2020 feels different because now more than ever we are taking the time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going. We are demanding to be better, not only for today but for future generations. We as a nation have come together and we rise together to stand up for what is right. America is defined by what we make of her. This is what makes America special. We have inspired the world and I hope this Fourth of July as we grill and eat and drink we don’t look down on those who have the courage to protest and ask for more, but that we honor that we have the right to.

Jessica Sanchez, 33, was born and raised in Redwood City to parents who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the early 1970s. Sanchez is a mother to a daughter whose fifth birthday, coincidentally, is the third of July.

Perspectives:

American Stories: The ties that bind us, still

Published on July 3, 2020 in Community/Featured/Headline by Staff

With Independence Day occurring at a tumultuous time marked by a global pandemic and a national crisis over racial injustice, Climate gave local contributors carte blanche to write their perspectives on what makes America special. We will be publishing our contributors’ American Stories now through July 4. Keep an eye out for these unique and personal pieces.

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During the recent period of enforced inactivity, I found that the Civil War provides an inexhaustible number of ways to pass the time.

There’s a new biography of William Tecumseh Sherman, a Reddit group arguing about whether Jefferson Davis was right to replace Joseph Johnston with John Bell Hood at the gates of Atlanta, a History Channel series on Ulysses S. Grant.

Civil War issues still assert themselves. Should statues of Confederate leaders be forcibly torn down, as Black Lives Matter protesters are doing? Should the coastal California town of Fort Bragg be renamed to expunge the tribute to a rebel general? Does Abraham Lincoln’s military crackdown against draft rioters in New York furnish a precedent to give Donald Trump the power to call out troops in cities?

“Anybody who’s looked into it at all realizes that it truly is the outstanding event in American history insofar as making us what we are,” Civil War author Shelby Foote wrote.

One of my neighbors flies California’s Bear Flag from his flagpole without the stars and stripes, a more subtle political statement than the Confederate battle flag, but a token of separation nonetheless.

Upset with Trump’s America, people talk wistfully about California leaving the United States and setting out as the world’s fifth largest economy. During the presidency of Barack Obama, Texas’ governor openly speculated that the Lone Star state had the right to revert to an independent republic, as it was from 1836 to 1845.

In fact, the Civil War settled this issue. The Supreme Court in the 1869 Texas v. White decision codified the North’s position—secession is illegal. No state can leave.

In 1850, South Carolina separatist Senator John C. Calhoun made the uncanny deathbed prediction that the Union would “explode in a presidential election” within twelve years. In 2020, it sometimes feels the same way, that inevitably the culture wars will cause a dissolution.

To which I say, not in my lifetime. My great-great-grandfather Tandy Pritchard fought for the Union as part of the 54th Illinois U.S. infantry, including at Vicksburg. To give up that cause now would be a betrayal.

Our ties will reassert themselves. As Lincoln said: “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Vlae Kershner is a longtime Bay Area journalist and a frequent writer for Climate.

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