Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Stealing Valor
Here's a strange one:
A former Mayor of Atlantic City for years claimed he had served in Special Forces, doing things too secret to reveal. He mentally cracked up when he was exposed, so shamed he literally ran away & hid. But he was exposed because he had applied for & was receiving benefits he hadn't earned, & the feds caught up with him. He committed the crime of fraud. The irony was that the man had in fact been a good career soldier, serving two stints in Vietnam (where any soldier could get blown up while off-duty sitting in a cafe), & received an honorable discharge. But some guys feel a military career without battle heroics is incomplete. In modern wartime, most military personnel never see front line battle. We don't hold that against them. In Iraq & Afghanistan no place is really safe.
In any town in America, what Alvarez falsely claimed would mark him as the worst kind of fool & turn him into a social outcast shunned by all. Why would someone risk that unless driven by some psychological disorder? It's that outrageous. Any Vietnam vet would know Alvarez was lying after just a few minutes of conversation. He must have avoided those encounters. But does it make him a criminal? He didn't "steal valor" from anyone. The valorous are no less valorous because of Alvarez. The living valorous are also modest, because they know the most valorous of all were killed doing their acts of valor, often without witness to their heroic sacrifices.
Our natural urge is to punish Alvarez in some legal way. But how? Jail him? We don't need to be protected from him & it costs money to keep people in jail. Fine him? Make him do community service? Tar & feather him?
Constitutional speech protections aside, the law itself is unnecessary, passed in one of the fits of patriotic fervor congress has when it's unable to accomplish anything constructive. Like holding visible public hearings to investigate how we were paying for two foreign wars & how much of the money we borrowed & spent was being utterly wasted,
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Stolen Valor Act: Is lying about being a hero a right?
When Xavier Alvarez stood up and introduced himself at a local water district meeting in July 2007, he had no idea he was about to commit a federal crime.
“I’m a retired Marine of 25 years,” he told the other board members in Pomona, Calif. “I retired in the year 2001. Back in 1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. I got wounded many times by the same guy. I’m still around.”Alvarez is just plain stupid. No military medal is easier to verify than the Congressional Medal of Honor. There are websites (including wikipedia) listing every recipient & how it was earned. Alvarez's lie is so huge, so dishonorable as to suggest he is crazy. But he didn't do it to falsely claim veteran's benefits.
In most social situations, such statements might elicit interested nods, admiring smiles, and perhaps heart-felt thanks for his brave service to the nation.
But it turns out Mr. Alvarez never served a day in the US military, had never been wounded, and – most important – was never awarded the Medal of Honor.
How much do you know about the US Constitution? A quiz.
After his false claim was exposed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up. Alvarez was soon indicted for allegedly violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, a law that makes it a federal crime to falsely claim to have been awarded a military medal.
His lawyer attacked the indictment as a violation of the First Amendment, arguing that Americans have a free-speech right to make false and outrageous claims about themselves without facing criminal prosecution from a government truth squad.
A federal judge upheld the indictment, but a US appeals court panel reversed.
On Wednesday, Alvarez’s case arrives at the US Supreme Court, where the justices are being asked to decide whether the Stolen Valor Act is an unconstitutional regulation of free speech or an acceptable effort by the government to punish an alleged liar.
A former Mayor of Atlantic City for years claimed he had served in Special Forces, doing things too secret to reveal. He mentally cracked up when he was exposed, so shamed he literally ran away & hid. But he was exposed because he had applied for & was receiving benefits he hadn't earned, & the feds caught up with him. He committed the crime of fraud. The irony was that the man had in fact been a good career soldier, serving two stints in Vietnam (where any soldier could get blown up while off-duty sitting in a cafe), & received an honorable discharge. But some guys feel a military career without battle heroics is incomplete. In modern wartime, most military personnel never see front line battle. We don't hold that against them. In Iraq & Afghanistan no place is really safe.
In any town in America, what Alvarez falsely claimed would mark him as the worst kind of fool & turn him into a social outcast shunned by all. Why would someone risk that unless driven by some psychological disorder? It's that outrageous. Any Vietnam vet would know Alvarez was lying after just a few minutes of conversation. He must have avoided those encounters. But does it make him a criminal? He didn't "steal valor" from anyone. The valorous are no less valorous because of Alvarez. The living valorous are also modest, because they know the most valorous of all were killed doing their acts of valor, often without witness to their heroic sacrifices.
Our natural urge is to punish Alvarez in some legal way. But how? Jail him? We don't need to be protected from him & it costs money to keep people in jail. Fine him? Make him do community service? Tar & feather him?
Constitutional speech protections aside, the law itself is unnecessary, passed in one of the fits of patriotic fervor congress has when it's unable to accomplish anything constructive. Like holding visible public hearings to investigate how we were paying for two foreign wars & how much of the money we borrowed & spent was being utterly wasted,
Labels: bully pulpit, in the news
