February 6, 2013--American Legion

To many of us who did not serve in the military, the image we have of the American Legion is that its members are rapidly-aging men who wear funny hats and hang out in American Legion halls, playing cards, exchanging war stories, drinking, and grousing about how bad things have gotten here in the U.S of A.

We think the things they grouse about tend to be of a politically conservative persuasion. And that is borne out by some of the positions the Legion's leadership has taken on the national stage.

A particular focus, for some reason unrelated to military affairs or the needs of veterans, has been the AL's push to challenge the separation of church and state. It has been leading a nationwide effort to "combat the secular cleansing of our American heritage," stating that the phrase "separation of church and state" is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.

To further this agenda, in 2011, the Legion published a document, "In the Footsteps Of The Founders--A Guide To Defending American Values." They did this, they announced, to curtail religious-establishment cases against the Boy Scouts and the official display of the Ten Commandments and other religious symbols (read "Christian") on public property.

Things, in fact, are changing. The Boy Scouts, for certain with American Legion disapproval, announced last week that they are reconsidering their ban on gay scouts and scoutmasters; and the Supreme Court--including the current very conservative SCOUS--has been consistent in protecting the separation that the Legion has claimed is extra-constitutional.

But then a Vietnam-era friend who is a member of the American Legion passed along to me a copy of the Legion's magazine, The American Legion--The Magazine for a Strong America--and I was surprised to see, as was he (he is a political liberal), articles such as "A Case for Civility," that calls on Congress, talk shows, and the rest of us to tone down the harsh rhetoric and "bury the hatchet" so we can solve some of our nation's most vexing problems; and "Camp Lejeune's Toxic Legacy," which is about a father's efforts to get the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune to clean up its "solvent-laced" drinking water that he claims affected his own water supply, which in turn caused his daughter to get a rare form of leukemia that led to her death.

What's up, my friend and I wondered?

Perhaps the same thing that is causing the Boy Scouts to review it policies--loss of membership.

Both organizations have seen significant declines in recent years. Scout membership, for example, is down 21 percent since they banned gays from joining. And for the Legion, their decline is the result of more recent, younger veterans deciding not to sign up. To many of them, the Legion seems anachronistic, caught in an ideological past that has not kept up with the more libertarian times.

So to get with the evolving culture or risk extinction, the Legion may be deciding to change. Though its magazine is still full of ads for hearing-aid batteries and walk-in bathtubs, reflecting the makeup of its current membership, it also includes a civilized debate about federal funding for green energy.

In the big picture, this may be insignificant. On the other hand, I sense that it may actually be further evidence of demographic and cultural change that is having a more and more profound effect on our society. The election of 2012 and the forces it revealed may turn out to be quite tectonic.