It takes a special person to risk so much for people who care so little.

“It takes a special person to risk so much for people who care so little.”

When I was younger, this sentiment rang true. To have been through so much and return to a world that often chooses to ignore our reality. To have changed so drastically and seen the atrocities of the world.  To have experienced the things I would never wish upon anyone. The pain. The suffering. The joy. The loss. The love. The torment. The paradoxes. 

It was so easy to see their actions as caring so little. But how could they understand? Is that not why we did it? Why we do it? So that others do not have to? That those around us might live free of those paradoxes. That they might never see or feel what we have. 

With age, I hope I have gained wisdom. It is easy to see how such a sentiment feels true. But I think that the truth resides in ignorance. It isn’t t that they don’t care, it is they do not know. They do not understand. Is that not the point? 

Is their “lack of caring” not evidence of their lack of experience? Is that not a sign it was all worth it?  That what we did was worth it? That what we did worked? That we might bear the pain so they would not. 

Our experiences are so drastic, the mind could never understand without firsthand knowledge. Without that knowledge, it is easy to seem as though one does not care, blissful ignorance. It is not that they do not care, it is that they can never truly understand. It is that we hope they never do, and maybe that is the whole point. 

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This first appeared in The Havok Journal on November 11, 2024.

Jake Smith is a law enforcement officer and former Army Ranger with four deployments to Afghanistan.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.