Opinion

OP-ED: Honor Veterans by Waging Peace

Published

10 years ago

November 24, 2015

By Anh Le

Veterans Day is a time to reflect on the tragedy of war.

We remember how certain wars, started and waged by our own government and elected officials, have been borne by ordinary young American men and women, rather than by those who commenced those wars.

When President George W. Bush ordered the invasion against Iraq in 2003, he claimed that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction.” He even ordered Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell to the United Nations to give a speech repeating that claim.

Yet there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Even though President Barack Obama has reduced the number of American troops in Iraq, U.S. troops still remain there. Iraq’s people still suffer from the destruction of its land and infrastructure that occurred during the war; and the war and fighting and killing continue.

After the invasion of Iraq began, a friend of mine, Paul, an army veteran who had been captured by the Nazis in France during World War II and was a prisoner of war, said to me, “Damn it, this war that Bush is starting against the Iraqis, do you see his kids being sent over there? Do you see any kids of senators and congressmen being sent over there? Do you see the kids from privileged and rich families over there? No, it’s always somebody else’s kid!”

What my friend Paul said is as relevant today as it was then – not only for the U.S. War in Iraq, but also for our country’s War in Afghanistan and War in Vietnam, which ended in 1975.

On Veterans Day, I met a Filipino American bus driver who was wearing an Army Infantryman beret that his son wore. His son was in the Army for two years, when he was killed in Afghanistan at the age of 19 in 2011.

The Pentagon told him how his son died. However, individuals who are familiar with the circumstances of his death shared with him a much different version than the one provided by the Pentagon.

This father and his family grieve deeply for their son each day.

In commemorating Veterans Day and honoring those who have served in the military, I also see what others see throughout our communities every day: Veterans whose lives have been damaged by their war experiences, many of whom are now homeless, disabled, and begging for help on our street corners.

During the Vietnam War, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a sermon, “A Time To Break The Silence,” at Riverside Church in New York City, on April 4, 1967, calling for an end to the war.

“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just,’“ he said.

Dr. King condemned the American military’s use of herbicides and napalm against the Vietnamese people and declared he could no longer remain silent when he thought of all the Vietnamese children, women, and men killed by our nation’s war effort.

He stated that a nation “sending men home from bloody battlefields, physically damaged and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love.”

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” he said.

Let us remember Dr. King’s sermon. Let us reclaim our belief in the sanctity of human life. Let us turn swords into plowshares.

Let us work for peace in our world.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Advice

COMMENTARY: If You Don’t Want Your ‘Black Card’ Revoked, Watch What You Bring to Holiday Dinners

From Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Day, whether it’s the dining room table or the bid whist (Spades? Uno, anyone?) table, your card may be in danger.

Published

3 days ago

December 14, 2025

Oakland Post

The ‘aunties’ playing cards. iStock photo by Andreswd.

By Wanda Ravernell
Post Staff

From the fourth week of November to the first week in January, if you are of African descent, but particularly African American, certain violations of cultural etiquette will get your ‘Black card’ revoked.

From Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Day, whether it’s the dining room table or the bid whist (Spades? Uno, anyone?) table, your card may be in danger.

It could take until Super Bowl Sunday for reinstatement.

I don’t know much about the card table, but for years I was on probation by the ‘Aunties,’ the givers and takers of Black cards.

How I Got into Trouble

It was 1970-something and I was influenced by the health food movement that emerged from the hippie era. A vegetarian (which was then considered sacrilegious by most Black people I knew) prepared me a simple meal: grated cheese over steamed broccoli, lentils, and brown rice.

I introduced the broccoli dish at the Friday night supper with my aunt and grandfather. She pronounced the bright green broccoli undone, but she ate it. (I did not, of course, try brown rice on them.)

I knew that I would be allowed back in the kitchen when she attempted the dish, but the broccoli had been cooked to death. (Y’all remember when ALL vegetables, not just greens, were cooked to mush?)

My Black card, which had been revoked was then reattained because they ate what I prepared and imitated it.

Over the decades, various transgressions have become normalized. I remember when having a smoked turkey neck instead of a ham hock in collard greens was greeted with mumblings and murmurings at both the dining room and card tables. Then came vegan versions with just olive oil (What? No Crisco? No bacon, at least?) and garlic. And now my husband stir fries his collards in a wok.

But No Matter How Things Have Changed…

At holiday meals, there are assigned tasks. Uncle Jack chopped raw onions when needed. Uncle Buddy made the fruit salad for Easter. My mother brought the greens in winter, macaroni salad in summer. Aunt Deanie did the macaroni and cheese, and the great aunts, my deceased grandmother’s sisters, oversaw the preparation of the roast beef, turkey, and ham. My father, if he were present, did the carving.

These designations/assignments were binding agreements that could stand up in a court of law. Do not violate the law of assignments by bringing some other version of a tried-and-true dish, even if you call it a new ‘cheese and noodle item’ to ‘try out.’ The auntie lawgivers know what you are trying to do. It’s called a menu coup d’état, and they are not having it.

The time for experiments is in your own home: your spouse and kids are the Guinea pigs.

My mother’s variation of a classic that I detested from that Sunday to the present was adding crushed pineapple to mashed sweet potatoes. A relative stops by, tries it, and then it can be introduced as an add-on to the standard holiday menu.

My Aunt Vivian’s concoctions from Good Housekeeping or Ladies’ Home Journal magazine also made it to the Black people’s tables all over the country in the form of a green bean casserole.

What Not to Do and How Did It Cross Your Mind?

People are, of all things holy, preparing mac ‘n’ cheese with so much sugar it tastes like custard with noodles in it.

Also showing up in the wrong places: raisins. Raisins have been reported in the stuffing (makes no sense unless it’s in a ‘sweet meats’ dish), in a pan of corn bread, and – heresy in the Black kitchen – the MAC ‘n’ CHEESE.

These are not mere allegations: There is photographic evidence of these Black card violations, but I don’t want to defame witnesses who remained present at the scene of the crimes.

The cook – bless his/her heart – was probably well-meaning, if ignorant. Maybe they got the idea from a social media influencer, much like Aunt Viv got recipes from magazines.

Thankfully, a long-winded blessing of the food at the table can give the wary attendee time to locate the oddity’s place on the table and plan accordingly.

But who knows? Innovation always prevails, for, as the old folks say, ‘waste makes want.’ What if the leftovers were cut up, dipped in breadcrumbs and deep fried? The next day, that dish might make it to the TV tray by the card table.

An older cousin – on her way to being an Auntie – in her bonnet, leggings, T-shirt, and bunny slippers and too tired to object, might try it and like it….

And if she ‘rubs your head’ after eating it, the new dish might be a winner and (Whew!) everybody, thanks God, keeps their Black cards.

Until the next time.