Something seems seriously wrong with some Toledo citizens' perspective on the relationship between the local civilian government and the national military. And it truly does frighten me.
I don't usually comment on local politics, but here's what's been going on the last several days. The Mayor of Toledo, Carty Finkbeiner, issued an order a few days ago revoking permission for a company of US Marines to conduct training exercises downtown in the business district. I gather that the exercises had been scheduled to take place for a while, and that Mayor Finkbeiner was not aware of it until the morning of that day. Forcing the US Marines company to cancel their exercises on such short notice I'm sure was an inconvenience for them, and perhaps rather discourteous of the city. The Mayor's lack of information regarding the matter prior to the day of (he says he read about the exercises that morning in the local newspaper) seems inexcusable.
However, what frightens me is (1) when and where these exercises were scheduled to take place (which is why the Mayor cancelled them, understandably in my view), and (2) the public's reaction to the Mayor's decision.
The company of Marines had planned to conduct exercises downtown beginning at 3:00pm on a Friday afternoon. The exercises would have continued all weekend. "The exercises were to include mock firefights, ambushes, and the firing of blank ammunition." There is more than one school in that neighborhood. So the exercises would have begun just as students were getting out of school and as school buses were doing their thing. Judging from the fact that the Mayor didn't know about the exercises until he read the paper in the morning, and from my general sense of how few people read the newspaper, I would not have been surprised had the exercises been completely unexpected for the students and the schools. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be leaving school, or driving to the downtown library from our old apartment and into an apparent firefight. Some of the Mayor's defenders have suggested that someone might have had a heart attack when a gun went off. I can think of additional, perhaps worse things that might have happened. Personally I think it was irresponsible for the company of Marines to choose that location and that time to conduct their exercises, and irresponsible for whoever among the Mayor's subordinates gave them permission.
OK, so that's the first scary thing. Here's the second.
The way the local paper told the story at the beginning of the week (Monday, Tuesday, and today), the majority of Toledo citizens (who said anything at all about the matter) called for the Mayor to apologize. Some have even called for him to resign "before he embarrasses the city any further." The City Council has voted, according to today's paper, to issue a formal apology to the commander of the company. Defenders of the Mayor in his office have assured the public that he is loyal to the nation and loyal to the nation's military.
OK. First, why should the city officials have to apologize to the Marines for saying "no" to their request to conduct training exercises downtown? That isn't what downtown Toledo is for. (Nor, in my opinion, should it be!) The city has every right to forbid the Marines to train downtown. Now, I guess I can admit that some apology might be appropriate for the abominable lack of communication. But that really doesn't seem to be the issue for most "support our troops" happy Toledo citizens. They are questioning the Mayor's "loyalty to the military" and his "support of the troops". !!!
The thing is, as I see it, this country is run by civilian governments. What is important is that the military be loyal to those civiliain governments, not the other way around. If the civilian governments tell the military they are not allowed to fight a war, or not allowed to conduct training exercises in civilian space, the military has no right to complain.
The appearance that most vocal Toledo citizens do not see things this way, and expect all good citizens to be loyal supporters of the military frightens me. Our country seems to me to be far too attached to the military as a central feature of our life and identity.
Really this should not surprise me (and doesn't). We have to depend on our military because we have made ourselves dependent on it. Our military force is necessary to protect us from all the enemies we've made (in more than one sense, training and arming them, and giving them no cause to love us). And it is necessary to secure our quality of life by maintaining our international clout.
By trying to make the world afraid of us, we have made ourselves afraid of the world.
As I heard someone say several months ago, fear (terror) has become a part of our national identity. Being afraid is patriotic.
None of this is news. But if we now have to be afraid of our own military in our own cities, this is scarcely an improvement.
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"He Himself is our Peace." (Eph 2)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Marines Fight with Toledo City Government
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3 comments:
I think it's rather extreme to end on the note that "now we must be afraid of the military in our own cities". Strikes me as rather reactionary. Take a quick look at it from a different viewpoint:
I promise the military had informed all the nearby institutions of their plans, including schools, and were specific of the date and time. This is how the military works. By clocks and schedules and coordination. The military is very aware of the necessity of maintaining a good relationship with the surrounding community. Speaking as someone who has been an active and integral participant in a large-scale military exercise, I can testify to the dedication to safety and cooperation that infuses the whole organization. Saying that we should fear military exercises in populated areas betrays an uninformed view.
I can understand what made the Mayor do what he did, but I can also understand and relate to the citizen's reaction. I daresay that I think it was far from a reaction of fear. It was a reaction in the interest of unity, and that is never a bad thing. It must be remembered that the civilian government and the downtown are both owned by the taxpayers, not the mayor. If they complain about the military being disallowed their exercises, I think their voices carry more importance and weight than the mayor's.
Keep in mind none of this is meant to take a position or opinion on the military in general, or even to be argumentative, because I wasn't there and don't know the whole story. It is rather to call attention to the fact that there is always much more to a story than on the surface. I simply fear the view here is too unbalanced.
Nothing wrong with a little debate, right?
What are your thoughts on this post? Not so much the musings on the church calendar, but on Hauerwas' provocative comments.
I'm afraid the subject at hand isn't really what is at stake here: all that people seem to see in issues like these is another bulleted item they can use in a political war. Someone dear to me is very political, and I learned after a while that she just automatically sees everything as fodder to get people she doesn't like out of office- regardless of what the issue is.
So basically, this is the principle that Americans seem to agree on- "Hate the politician that started the war, not the soldier that waged it" & bringing it to bear whenever possible so that a certain political party can strive forward.
Sad, but true. On the up-side, at least soldiers arn't hated for just doing thier job. :)
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