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“In Excelsis Deo”: Blessings to our American service members and veterans in 2009

By SusanUnPC on January 2, 2009 at 7:30 AM in Soldiers/Veterans

This is a scene from season one of West Wing. Toby, one of the president’s top advisers, becomes involved, by chance, in the death of a homeless veteran.

The veteran was wearing a coat that Toby had donated to a charity. In that coat, the police found one of Toby’s business cards. Assuming Toby had a connection with the man, the police call him. Toby explains the donation, and the police expect nothing more of him. Yet, Toby is troubled, and he visits the park bench where the homeless veteran’s body was found.

The homeless veteran had frozen to death on a very cold Washington D.C. night.

Toby cannot get it out of his mind: the man’s service to our country, and the man’s ultimate lonely fate in devastatingly cold weather. So, in defiance of normal White House policy, he arranges for the man’s burial at Arlington.

This is that scene:

Here is the brief description of the episode from IMDb.com:

Season 1, Episode 10: In Excelsis Deo
Original Air Date—15 December 1999

When a homeless veteran dies on the National Mall and his body remains uncollected for hours, Toby becomes fixated on getting him a proper burial.

All good blessings to our troops, and to our veterans.

It is a crime, in this nation, that we have homeless veterans who die in anonymity, freezing to death.

Just imagine how they are faring during this particularly cold winter we are encountering across this nation.

Look up the Veteran’s Center nearest you. Mail them a check. Bring them any supplies they may ask for.

Donate your old coats, gloves, scarves, and sweaters and sweatshirts.

It is the least we can all do.

  • bert

    It is a crime, in this nation, that we have homeless veterans who die in anonymity, freezing to death.

    Yes, indeed. And in America, no less. We talk a good game, but we do not walk the walk. For shame.

  • Mar

    This was one of the things that West Wing could do so well to show the ideal and the reality at the same time in a very affecting way.

    It’s hard to watch this scene without being touched by the contrasts. In other words, I just cried my eyes out.

    It is amazing that in a land of abundance so many have so little.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      Me too, Mar.

      A small story. A business I know of had a successful marketing campaign a few years ago. It was one of those “viral” marketing campaigns that really took off and became so “in” that t-shirts were made and thousands sold.

      But the business owner decided that all monies, except for the actual cost of the shirt + the shipping charge, would go to the Seattle Veterans’ Center. They delivered a check totaling, I’m trying to recall — i think it was around $18,000.

      The owner and his staff were invited to a ceremony at the Vet Center. And they were introduced to all the homeless men (I think they were all men) who came that day to pick up the packages of blankets, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and many other amenities that the gift had made possible. The monies were used in other ways too.

      MANY (!) of those homeless men came from the Iraq War and the Gulf War. People just don’t know how many Iraq vets are having a terrible time when they return home, for a large number of valid reasons.

      Of note: The business owner has a long history of being an anti-war activist, but he realizes that far too many young men and women are left with few choices when they leave high school. The military offers opportunities they would never otherwise have. But it exacts a high price, particularly for those who see combat.

  • candymarl

    Thank you for pointing this out. So often vets are forgotten during and after a conflict. Many of our young vets, from the current conflicts, are homeless today. I donate to vet causes that help get vets off the street or get them medical treatment.

    Again, thank you for this post.

  • C.S.

    This scene must have been based on the veteran who did freeze to death across from the White House during the Reagan years. This is not a new problem and seems to happen every year and like the Soertoro/Obama campaign, there has always been much chatter about changing things but when action is required it dissipates like so much smoke on the wind.

    But it also appears that some of our veterans have begun to react to political administrations using them up and tossing them aside. Colonel Gregory S. Hollister has filed a suit to clarify the identity of the man about to be installed as his commander in chief. As he says, all military are required to take an oath of allegiance

    I, Gregory S. Hollister, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

    and he feels that all veterans, even those who end up abandoned and dying on the streets, deserve to know who is giving them their orders and

    without a determination by competent authority as to whether Soetoro is or isn’t constitutionally eligible to be President, Hollister fears he will be left on his own to determine his duties should he receive what is purported to be his reactivation orders from Soetoro, or conflicting orders from superiors in the chain of command, or orders which may conflict with his duty to support and defend the Constitution.

    And if we really want to help those young men called to service by politicians, we must make sure that those men who refused to fight in their generation’s war can no longer abandon their duty to veterans who return. And that their commander in chief is someone of truth and integrity and who does not owe allegiance to a foreign nation. They deserve to know that before they must decide if an order is a lawful order.

    http://www.sonorannews.com/archives/2008/081231/FrntPgEnlistment.html

  • Sassy

    Susan, you are correct in that we owe these people more than we can ever repay.
    The latest casualties from Iraq will face more hardships than even previous generations, I fear. Their injuries are so severe and those still on active duty are over-used.
    I truly feel for them and their families!
    Thanks to all of them!

  • Texas Playwright

    What a moving, tragic scene. The arts do illuminate the human condition. This is an area I most wanted Hillary to supervise–veterans.

  • TeakwoodKite

    Thank you SusanUnPC, for showing this clip.

    If BO is to swear an Oath on the Lincln bible, then would not it be wise for him to also follow these words?

    With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

    .

    The choice is his.