Combine Veterans, Election days

Monday’s commemoration of Veterans Day was its usual unremarkable mixture of rain-soaked ceremony and unabashed commercialism.

President Bush paid all due honor to the nation’s fighting forces while promoting his own war with Iraq. Aging soldiers closed ranks – they’re dying at a rate of a thousand a day now – and some schools and offices closed doors, an homage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice before such a notion became a Hollywood cliche.

Still, time did not stop Monday at the 11th hour of the 11th day, when the original Armistice was signed. America did not stand in silent tribute as other nations do. The glory of war was not reflected in the tottering steps of ancient soldiers straining to parade down Main Street. The horror of war was hardly mentioned, pushed aside by politicians rattling their hi-tech sabres.

What strikes you about Veterans Day at this juncture is how musty it feels, like a fraying uniform from your grandfather’s closet, venerable but hardly relevant. It has become a half-observed holiday for an ambivalent public – meaningful for a rapidly dying few, scandalously ignored by the apathetic many who are glad only for another excuse for a sale.

Seems to me we have a choice to make: Either recreate this holiday into something dignified and relevant, or merge Veterans Day and Election Day into a national holiday to focus on and celebrate both.

That’s not my idea. It was a dramatic suggestion made last year by the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Unfortunately, up-in-arms veterans groups swiftly snuffed out any debate on the recommendation, and it was notably absent from the Help America Vote Act signed last month by President Bush.

That doesn’t mean it deserved to be trashed.

The bipartisan election commission, headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford – both veterans, please note – offered a compelling rationale for merging the holidays. And, interestingly, their argument did not rest on the fact that a national day-off could, many experts believe, bolster voter turnout, especially among the young.

Instead, it would address the difficulty in recruiting enough poll workers to operate the nation’s voting booths, a shortage that will grow only worse as more sophisticated voting machinery is put into use. A national holiday would also free up public buildings for polling places.

Orchestrating elections is becoming an ever more complicated task. Florida was able to avert a repeat of the 2000 debacle only by spending millions of dollars and enlisting police departments to oversee the balloting. Afterward, Miami’s police chief said Election Day was harder to manage than the Super Bowl, a hurricane and a papal visit combined.

Establishing another federal holiday in early November was a nonstarter, the commission reasoned. Combining Election and Veterans Day could reinvigorate both.

“We thought it would reinforce the meaning of Veterans Day, which for most Americans is evanescent, unfortunately,” says Philip D. Zelikow, the commission’s executive director. “If Veterans Day was also the day we cast our ballot and preserved our freedom, that makes it more relevant. The synergy is wonderful.”

Surely we can appreciate the desire of veterans to retain their own signature day, not only to honor their deeds but also to focus the nation on the meaning and implications of war, sacrifice and freedom.

Yet this holiday keeps fading along with our military’s greatest generations. Veterans Affairs estimates that 2008 will be a peak year for burials in national cemeteries. Most World War II and Korean War veterans will be gone.

There’s always the chance, of course, that a future massive conflict will create more veterans, more casualties. So death can inject life into Veterans Day. But shouldn’t we be searching for a more constructive alternative?