----- Original Message -----
From: Marvin Long, Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: BRIN-L Mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 9:00 AM
Subject: They gave their lives....
>
> I think it's fairly appropriate to use the phrase "gave their lives" when
> soldiers die in action
I agree, and I'd like to give an analogy. Let us say someone drives drunk
and kills someone in a car accident. They are morally responsible for
killing those people. They made a tradeoff between the enjoyment of getting
drunk (or the giving in to an addiction) combined with the ease of just
driving afterwards to the risk of terminating someone's life. That's why we
have jail terms for this. We would say that they took someone's life in
this case. If someone was the driver in a fatal accident which was not
their fault, we would not use that language.
When someone agrees to go to war, they knowingly risk their lives for the
goals of the country. It seems that parallel logic says that they have a
moral responsibility for taking that risk. This moral responsibility is
viewed in a positive light, and we honor them for making that choice. It is
true that we give them higher honor than those who risked their lives and
lived, but I think that is proper, and fits what we do with drunk driving.
Now, it is also true that we give even greater weight to the people who kill
others with forethought. But, we also give greater weight to people who
make a deliberate action that knowingly results in their death in order to
save their fellow soldiers. These people are typically singled out for
special honor.
Dan M.
