This Veteran’s day, I pay my respects to my father in law, a veteran of WWII, who walked the Bataan Death March, a distance that took them as if walking from Los Angeles to San Diego, for 4 days and 4 nights. He paid respects to the soldiers dying, counting them as they died. He negotiated with the Japanese authorities and offered to cook for them, and respected them as soldiers doing their duty. It is how he saved his team of soldiers and himself.
I pay respect to my father as well, as he stood up to Catholic Church authorities who refused to bury his parents (soldiers who were fighting for Philippine independence from the colonizers), for fear of retaliation from the Japanese Imperial army soldiers.
Both fathers taught me generosity of spirit, forgiveness and interconnectedness as humanity. I love them and their love for the Philippines, standing up for freedom against the colonizers, and to show radical love! Veteran’s day is significant to me because of their heroism, patriotism and standing up to authoritarianism, evil colonization, while loving people, including the soldiers.
I salute them! I cried this morning as I reflected on their lives.