Statement from the President – Veterans Day, 2024

Katrina S. Rogers, Ph.D.

Statement from the President: Veterans Day 2024

As some of you know, my late husband was a military veteran. Although he lived through the Vietnam War and subsequent other “actions,” his was a life marked by trauma. He died of his exposure to the chemical Agent Orange decades after his service.

I have reflected on his experience in previous Veterans Day events at Fielding. What I’ve been thinking about lately is what it was like to be a military spouse. As a spouse, I was witness to his sorrow and pain, but I also experienced the joys of giving service to a country that tries to move in the world as a bastion of democratic rights and freedom. It is easy to be cynical, especially with a past of Indigenous genocide and slavery, stories of government corruption, dubious uses of force, and a globalized media that exhorts us not to trust.

Winston Churchill is often credited saying, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” In a speech to the House of Commons on November 11, 1947, he highlighted democracy’s flaws while noting that alternative systems had proven even less effective throughout history.

Over many years, I have come to see the wisdom of this remark. After his military career, Bill became a political science professor. He liked to show how, over the long arc of time, justice always wins. What he meant was, if we incrementally keep at democracy, things get better for more people. We address the injustices of sexism, racism, homophobia, Indigenous genocide, and slavery, all through the dedication to creating a better society for the greatest number of people in it.

Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation, as Coretta Scott King said.

At this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, we have the opportunity to rise above division and embrace the power of unity. As a university, we believe in the transformative potential of diverse perspectives coming together to solve our greatest challenges. Together, we can build a future where collaboration, understanding, and shared purpose uplift our communities and inspire a more just and inclusive society.

Democracies can choose to take the path from apology to restorative justice. Contrast this response to a recent story of the continuing abuse and violence inflicted on women in places like Afghanistan and Iran, and the point is made. Democracies have their own stories of violence and oppression, but they can also be capable of great acts of acknowledgment and redress. Having served in Europe during the Cold War, Bill experienced the fear of authoritarianism up close and personal, as he liked to say. To his dying breath, he believed that democracy a better form of government than all the others, but that it needed people like us to do our part to breathe life into it and to understand that justice requires deliberative work in good times and hard times. On this Veterans Day, I ask us all to both acknowledge the work of veterans and their families consider what part can each of us play in advancing the promise of a just and inclusive society?

Katrina S. Rogers, Ph.D.
President

Note: Fielding’s offices will be closed in observance of Veterans Day on Monday, Nov. 11.