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| Hershel 'Woody' Williams (r.), a Medal of Honor recipient, and Tristan Nutter attended an Oct. 6 event promoted by Thanks!
Plain and Simple. Tom A. Peter |
In West Virginia, a humble bid to thank troops
Thanks! Plain and Simple shows appreciation for service, with an eye to keeping vets in the state.
from the October 9, 2007 edition
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"Part of what has happened in West Virginia is that many of our young men and women do not opt to go on to college," says Pauline Shaver, a board member and retired Army colonel. "The military was a way to afford them some financial support [for education] or maybe to learn a trade." Thanks! Plain and Simple wants to ensure that these young people have the ability to return and use the skills they've acquired in the military to better their state.
"We want to encourage them to come back and stay in the state," explains Ron Wroblewski, a Vietnam veteran and president of the organization. "The way to keep people in the state is to make sure that they can be employed." Mr. Wroblewski says the group has started working with local businesses and industries to create greater job opportunities for veterans. West Virginia ranks second from the bottom among the states for median income, and its poverty rate is the fifth highest in the US.
Additionally, the group is trying to collect $35,000 to hire a veteran to spearhead its initiative to design the first national monument to honor mothers, especially those of soldiers.
While the group is officially apolitical, in practice it has difficulty attracting widespread support.
On Saturday, Thanks! Plain and Simple hosted a marble tournament here to promote its new "Marbles for Remembering" program. It's a simple notion: A service member receives a set of three marbles, keeps one, and gives the other two to loved ones, to remember one another by. Although the event was promoted on local radio and open to the public, most attendants were either connected to various veterans' groups or a local marble club called American Marbles.
"I think the left is skittish about our organization," says Baber, the Vietnam-era antiwar activist. "Everybody on the left [who] I know makes that distinction [between supporting the troops versus supporting the war], but they seem a little nervous about breaking bread with people on the right. I think their ultimate concern is that … if you're supporting the troops, or the organization is supporting the troops, then you're supporting the war."
Though Baber sometimes disagrees with his fellow board members' political leanings, he says it's ultimately not a problem. "For me, it's just walking on that thin, narrow path that so many Americans, I don't think, have found their way to," says Baber.
"I've learned an important lesson from Vietnam – that I think many on the left have learned – that there is a separation between policy and the service people," he says, explaining his transition from Vietnam protester to serving on the board of a support-the-troops organization.
In the meantime, Thanks! Plain and Simple feels that it is making progress. The Benedum Foundation just awarded it a $50,000 grant for educating 100 communities in West Virginia about how to support soldiers when they return from deployments or are transitioning back into civilian life. Members also hope to see others from around the country eventually open chapters of Thanks! Plain and Simple in their own states.
Says Williams, the World War II veteran: If the US can provide all criminals a fair trial, at the very least, service members deserve similar leeway. "They're doing everything we want them to do,' he says, "though we may not agree with the cause or the politics that got us involved."
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