It’s a fucking travesty what this country, and particularly this administration, has done to veterans.
But it’s damn good to see them waking up out of the Fox News bubble and starting to fight back.
Why? Because it was when the veterans began to fight back against Hoover, that the real impetus behind the Conservation Corps and the subsequent New Deal started, and real progressive change began in America.
Here’s your daily dose of Historical Context, the Bonus Army of 1932:
The Bonus Army was a group of 43,000 demonstrators – 17,000 veterans of U.S. involvement in World War I, their families, and affiliated groups – who gathered in Washington, D.C., in mid-1932 to demand early cash redemption of their service bonus certificates. Organizers called the demonstrators the Bonus Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.), to echo the name of World War I’s American Expeditionary Forces, while the media referred to them as the “Bonus Army” or “Bonus Marchers”. The demonstrators were led by Walter W. Waters, a former sergeant.
Many of the war veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression. The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 had awarded them bonuses in the form of certificates they could not redeem until 1945. Each certificate, issued to a qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier’s promised payment with compound interest. The principal demand of the Bonus Army was the immediate cash payment of their certificates.
On July 28, 1932, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shot at the protestors, and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the U.S. Army to clear the marchers’ campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded a contingent of infantry and cavalry, supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.
A second, smaller Bonus March in 1933 at the start of the Roosevelt administration was defused in May with an offer of jobs with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at Fort Hunt, Virginia, which most of the group accepted. Those who chose not to work for the CCC by the May 22 deadline were given transportation home. In 1936, Congress overrode President Roosevelt’s veto and paid the veterans their bonus nine years early.
When veterans get mad and organize, real change can happen. They’re the political group that has the most potential to affect real revolutionary change - they’ve received the military training, they know how to organize, and if need be, they know how to defend themselves.
Get mad. Get angry. Get on the streets and join us to take this country back. Stop letting the GOP fuck you.
Sorry bud. We’re in a downward spiral that ain’t ending any time soon.
You’re gonna be waiting a long time. If ever.
Yup. I mean, it took 2 thousand years after Athens for democracy to be implemented again.
Yeah as a militry vet I want to feel like my service was worth it. Right now I don’t. Schumer sold us out and the DNC is actively suppressing the politicians that are fighting. I wish I could move to Finland.
That’s sad
Hope you’ll get back up
Good luck with that.
I’m happy for Finland. They won civilization again this year. The world happiness index. The scientific measure of the happiness of the citizens of a society.
Which should be the entire point.
Of civilization and society I mean. Of everything we toil for. Maximize human happiness for the most humans possible. Full stop.
We choose to make ourselves miserable subsisting under avarice diseased sociopaths who themselves can never be satiated or therefore happy. And we call what we toil for… freedom? What a con-job.
Why take pride in not only losing civilization, but playing the wrong fucking sport altogether? It’s embarrassing to be associated with. I’m with stupid as in my nation state.
Do Finnish people know what happiness is, though?
It could be like death and stupidity and they can’t tell.
My experience in Finland says: yes, they know happiness
It sounds harmless but the ‘just’ masks the difficulty. The downvotes of the critical comments show that people are not willing to look at the problems. Should a solution be guessed by divine inspiration? MAGA is the easy answer. You cannot reject Trump and still demand an easy solution.
This is the community chalkboard that was built following the 2017 clash of Unite the Right rally protesters and counterprotesters that ended up with a vehicle being driven into a crowd, killing one and causing severe injuries to 35 others, as well as 14 other injuries unrelated to the vehicular attack. 2 state troopers also died in a crash of a helicopter related to the events.
Sad day to see someone patriotic admit that. For better or worse, damn that had to hurt.
“Again.”
Amen
Treating this sentiment as religious is the right impulse. It’s purely vibes based and should never be grounds for policy
Great, lemmy.ml is here.
Eww. lemmy.ml is gross.
I wonder if I can find the pics of when I was there
Removed by mod
People join when they’re 17 and only stay in for 4-8 years usually.
The only veterans I respect are the ones that become anti-US by the time they get out.
If they’re wishing for the good ol’ days when they could be proud of the US, fuck em.
I have known a couple who were anti-US when they went in. One had very few other options financially, and the other figured why not get their education on the country’s dime, get trained on how to be stronger and how to fight, and then use those talents to do their part in bringing down the system once they got out. Even while they were in, they were training people on the outside. One of their trainees was a top operative in Seattle in 2020; they kept the cops at bay in the Capitol Hill Autonomized Zone (CHAZ) for a month.
Keep in mind, I’m not saying don’t be wary of enlisted people…definitely be wary. Just don’t paint with such broad strokes. Some have needs, some have reasons, and some are in the process of becoming radicalized.
I see it more as a wish to return to innocence.
I wish I could go back to the good ol days before I realized how bad things were. It was a comfortable and relaxed ignorance.
You mean back when you supported the empire?
Ignorance is bad. I’m glad I know the truth.
Way before then. Back when I didn’t bother to vote because I didn’t realize it was important.
But I agree, knowing is better.
A lot of them are really brainwashed about it. But at least they have real beleifs, plus if you say “thank you for your service” they’ll vote for you.
I will only say “thank you for your service” to people who deserve it, like fire fighters and bus drivers and nurses.
Trump is terrible but making US army vets lose pride in their country is a good thing for almost everyone on earth
what.
US bad!
US army certainly bad.
Nope: “very bad”.
