I guess it is time we apologize to Eddie, Julius and Ethel. Eddie is Eddie Slovik, drafted in WWII and sent to Europe. He deserted. When Eddie was captured he was tried, found guilty and executed in January 1945 by firing squad.
Eddie was the only soldier executed in WWII and the first since the Civil War.
Julius and Ethel are the Rosenbergs. They were arrested for treason for selling atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets. Julius and Ethel were arrested, tried, found guilty and executed in June 1953. Ethel died in the same electric chair her husband, Julius, died in about one hour after his execution.
We owe them an apology because we now give a dishonorable discharge and a fine to admitted deserters. Even deserters for whom his comrades sacrificed grave injury to try to find. In fact we go so far as to trade enemy combatants for their return and give them an invite to the White House. Our country also has the “move along nothing to see here attitude” toward politicians who sell us out for personal gain.
Watching a society die is an interesting phenomena. Societies can die due to outside forces. A society can also lose it moral compass, legal compass and ethical compass and die from within. If you want to see what it looks like for a society to commit suicide just take a good long look out your front window.
Roger Hamm, Waynesfield
