This week is very busy, but I want to talk a bit about last week's blog post (https://acoup.blog/2020/11/13/collections-why-military-history/ …) a bit more before the next post appears tomorrow. Specifically the final bit about teaching and researching mil-hist as a civilian in classes and a field with so many veterans.
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My advice comes in two parts: 1) treat military folks (vets, active service) as people. Not symbols, not opportunities to virtue signal, not as damaged things. They are humans. Interact with them the way you would with a normal person. They are normal people.
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2) Talk less. Listen more. Most of the military folks I know aren't looking to be thanked at airports or get discounts at Arby's (some of them are offended by the latter, actually). What nearly every one I have talked to has expressed is a desperate desire for people to listen.
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Now, don't ask. Don't volunteer them. They may not be ready to talk. My uncle served before I was born and wasn't really ready to talk until after I was in college. But he had a real need to talk and these days he'll talk to whole classrooms about his service.
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Like I said, almost every veteran I've known has expressed, in some way, a deep desire to have people around them, or the general public, to understand...in the limited but very important way that we can.
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And we ought to listen. Both because it is the least we can do for the folks that make the 'music and poetry' possible for us, but also because in a democracy where we make decisions about where they fight, we have to take that duty of understanding seriously. Fin.
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