With every passing year, the left exhibits greater contempt for America, and that trend is evident in the growing disrespect for Veterans Day on college campuses.
Colleges and universities not only replace patriotic traditions with woke celebrations like Juneteenth, but openly advocate against this day of remembrance for U.S. service members.
Institutions such as Harvard, the University of San Diego, and Montclair State University have been criticized for failing to recognize Veterans Day, whether through social media silence, lack of campus communications, or removal from university holiday calendars.
Radical campus groups have taken this disrespect even further, so consumed by anger and ideology that they fail to appreciate the vast and irreplaceable freedoms America provides.
Last year, for example, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest student organization held an anti-Veterans Day protest, declaring that they “reject this holiday and refuse to celebrate it” because, in their view, “the American war machine should not be honored for the horrors unleashed on others.”
As Kali Jerrard wrote, this disregard for our veterans is also part of a broader failure in higher education to teach military history and civics effectively. This neglect erodes understanding of the sacrifices made by those who serve and of the military’s role in our nation’s story.
Thus, none of us student contributors for Minding the Campus—myself, Alyza Harris, and Leona Salinas—are surprised to find ourselves in class today, even though we are off on other federal holidays.
This is a short point, but an important one: colleges and universities should honor the men and women who were willing to lay down their lives for America. After all, it is because of their sacrifices that higher education—and all of us—enjoy the freedom to learn, debate, and engage as full participants in our civic and intellectual life.
Image: “UniversityofMIchiganDiag” by AndrewHorne on Wikimedia Commons
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