By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

WHITMAN – The wounds of war can go beyond the ones that bleed, to the invisible pain of moral and psychological scars.

“It’s a paradox that I want to acknowledge – the veterans’ paradox,” author Michael J. Robillard says. “As a veteran, how can one voice an opinion on the military and its policies without falling victim to the binary, of sounding either like a pacifistic victim or a war-hawk shill?”

He said the first risks sounding like a broken victim or a person condemning one’s own country, military or comrades in arms, or risking conflating patriotism with enthusiastic, uncritical endorsement of all things military and all things war.

American Legion Post 22 on June 29 hosted a book discussion with Robillard, who wrote a book titled “Outsourcing Duty: The Moral Exploitation of the American Soldier,” with Bradley J. Strawser. [Oxford University Press, hardcover 240 pages, $35 — available on Amazon.com]

“This book is an attempt to walk a tightrope,” Robillard said of the widening civilian/military divide. “If this town were to deploy in WWI, the entire town would have [gone] together and come back and spent the entirety of our lives sorting through what it was that we just did.” 

By WWII, families like the Sullivans, who lost all five sons, who had insisted on serving on the same ship, when that ship was sunk in action, led to a policy of separating family members or residents of the same town in service. By Vietnam, differing operation tempos affected how troops were deployed. 

The all-volunteer force since Vietnam takes the entirety of war fighting and decision-making “and drastically pushes it behind a social veil, where 1 percent or 2 percent of the population are doing the war fighting.”

Matthew Quimby of the Post’s Sons of the American Legion group introduced Robillard, reading from one of the book’s back cover blurbs.

“‘Outsourcing Duty’ is the first serious and detailed analysis of the ways in which societies and governments expose their soldiers to moral as well as physical risk,” he read during the event broadcast by Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV. “Soldiers are compelled to fight in wars about which they are given a little information. They must take responsibility for the life-and-death decisions that involve a great risk of wrongdoing.”

Robillard spoke of a military ethics conference he attended in Spain in March 2018 where he spoke to a fellow West Point graduate, Maj. Ian Fishback [a year ahead of Robillard] and veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, was one of three 82nd Airborne soldiers who had written in 2005 to the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., about abuses of prisoners’ rights he had witnessed at a forward base in Fallujah, Iraq that “had gone unnoticed.” He chronicled in that letter what he saw as a military culture that was permissive toward the abuse of prisoners.

The friend had served three more tours after transferring to Special Forces before returning to West Point to become a philosophy professor, before working on his PhD at the University of Michigan.

Tragically, Fishback died at age 42 in an adult foster care facility. According to a New York Times report of his death, his family said his career “begun to unravel as a result of neurological damage or post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The last time Robillard had spoken to his friend was in a Veterans Day phone call a week before Fishack’s death.

“Ian was a scholar,” Robillard said. “He was a warrior. He was an examplar of what it meant to be an American citizen, and our country gravely failed him. … Ian’s situation is not unique at all – not for him, not for my generation, not for … the last set of wars that America’s been fighting.”

Woburn native Staff Sgt. Keith Callahan was buried in 2007 after he was killed in Iraq. Robillard called him “the best platoon sergeant I ever had,” when as a new second lieutenant, the author found himself in his first command posting from 2003-04. Callahan was killed in action on a later deployment.

Robillard also spoke of Abington’s Marine Sgt. Daniel Vasselian, killed in Afghanistan in 2013; Whitman native Maj. Michael Donohue of the 82nd Airborne, who was killed in action in Afghanistan a year later; and  Sgt. Jared Monti, also of  the 82nd Airborne, who hailed from Abington, killed in 2006 in Afhanistan.

“Anyone know his story?” Robillard asked about Monti. “Medal of Honor. I would be very surprised if many people in this area are even aware of it. It was news to me.”

He said he listed the local fallen as a “brief snapshot of the side effects of our nation’s ongoing wars, at least for the last 20 years.”

It is not just a Massachusetts issue, he said, but a national one that spans the country and expands generationally.

Of the 1 percent that was doing any fighting in U.S. wars, much of that was assigned to Special Forces units, according to Robillard. Considerations about warfare, including ethics, was being pushed off to the tip of that spear.

“The civil/military divide I’ve just described is still widening,” he said. “This isn’t a static thing.”

The three side effects the authors see are: unchecked military adventures, or the “forever wars;” a basic breakdown in the shared notion of citizenship; and the moral exploitation of soldiers.

The book largely focuses on the latter, exploring the relationship of exploitee vulnerability and exploiter benefit, according to Robillard and Strawser.

“This is an incomplete account of how persons or groups can be exploited,” Robillard said. “Persons can also be exploited, unfairly or excessively, by being made to shoulder excessive amounts of moral responsibility. We think that is what’s going on, at least, in part, with America’s relationship to its soldiers and to its veterans – at least during the last 20 years and the War on Terror.”

PTSD, moral injury and the growing problem of suicides among the veterans community is tracking something within the moral space that illustrates the problem.

The book also traces the demographics of vulnerability within the military – socio-economic background, geography, age, race gender and recruitment means and methods. Society, on the other hand, benefits from minimal disruption and physical risk to a tremendous institutional immunity to moral injury and dilemmas.

They also offer three possible prescriptions for the problem: recruitment reform and compensation; going back to some kind of ‘skin in the game argument,’ perhaps like the pre-Vietnam citizen soldier model of some type of draft so communities see actual tangible evidence of a war; or a national service model. Some of the soluions examined in the book range from removing profit margin for war, giving youth more likely to go to war a voice in whether or not there should be one and limitation of military forces to home defense purposes. 

“It doesn’t have to be national military service – fighting fires out in Wyoming or building roads or doing something — but at least gives some damn sense that we’re shared citizens that are doing our part to collectively share in our war-fighting decision making, and we’re shouldering the responsibility equitably,” Robillard said.

Robillard said he is “most sympathetic” to the prescription of requiring more skin in the game.

The Whitman Recreation Commission held its annual Family Fun Day on Sunday, July 3 in Whitman Park. Above, entrants in the Bike and Carriage Decorating Contest pedal off from theBike parade start, above. At left, Riley Becker gets tattooed by mom Hayley. See more photos, page 6. Photos by Carol Livingstone

The Boston Wailers Band performs during the inaugural Whitman Day festival in Whitman Park on Saturday, June 25, above, as a giant Toll House cookie looms behind them. At left, Volunteer Maddy Allen had the coolest job in town as she hit the water as Olivia Westhaver dunked her by running up and hitting the lever. See more photos, page 6.              Photos by Carol Livingstone

It hasn’t been as dramatic as “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” but retiring W-H Regional High School music teachers Devin Dondero and Donald Legge can see the difference they’ve made for students in the 20 [for Legge] or the 25 [years for Dondero] in which they have taught at the school.

“We just don’t have to see any students off at the bus depot,” Legge laughed, referring to a scene in the film revolving around a teen with Broadway dreams.

And, while they are also not anticipating an alumni orchestra performance of a secret composition on their way out the door, as in the 1995 film, they said it is gratifying that they are able to participate in selecting the three new teachers.

Legge came to W-H after a stint teaching middle school in New Bedford after teaching nothing but high school in Florida.

“Coming up here and starting with a whole new group of kids, age development wise, was just totally different and I just wasn’t used to it,” he said of the New Bedford job. “Plus I was doing more general music [there], where in Florida it was all performance.”

Dondero said former W-H music teacher Tom Oliveiri brought him to the district from Abington, where he also worked with Oliveiri.

Dondero said they are very thankful to the people of Whitman and Hanson for allowing them to work with their kids all these years.

“The townspeople in both communities have been very supportive of the program over the years,” he said.

There will be things that will be missed a bit less, such as the fundraising needed to pay copyright fees involved in performing musicals or songs from them.

Mattress sale, bake sale and pancake breakfast proceeds went toward the $12,000 to $15,000 the Show Choir has had to pay out over the last three to four years in copyright fees.

Now that their next chapter begins at the end of the school year, both say more opportunities for performance — jazz trombone for Dondero and guitar for Legge — await, bringing their musical journey full circle.

They’ll be giving some lessons, but performing is their main focus now. Dondero, who also plays bass, is part of a blues trio for bass, but said the trombone gigs pay better.

Legge said he’ll be performing and traveling, the latter more out of necessity since his daughter lives in Oregon and his dad is in Florida.

“I think we realized at the stage of our development here as music educators, it was the time to go,” Dondero said. “For two very important reasons — it’s going to be better for the department because now they’re hiring three people, which is really good because that means the department will take a huge step forward.

“And the other reason is we were just getting along in years and we wanted some younger people to come in.”

Legge said he’s been teaching for 37 years, starting his career in 1985.

Dondero is a graduate of Boston University and Legge attended Westfield State and then went to Miami.

Teaching hadn’t been their first goal in music, both initially looking toward performance.

“At first, I’d have to say I wasn’t absolutely sure [about teaching], but I decided to go for the education degree because I knew that it would be a good idea to have it, if I wanted to teach,” Dondero said. “But, then, when I started teaching, I just enjoyed it more and more.”

In college, he said he preferred hanging out with the performance majors, rather than those concentrating on education.

“They were the ones that seemed to be doing more performing — and just having more fun, I felt,” Dondero said.

“I was going to be a rock star,” Legge said with a laugh. “And I did, I hung out with that group.”

Legge’s undergrad degree was in performance and it was his master’s degree focus until his last semester when his dean asked him is he really needed a master’s to perform in a club or orchestra, and suggested switching around a few classes to get a pedagogy degree. He didn’t even have to wait to use it as a fall-back, because the day of graduation another student told him of a teaching opportunity that required guitar skills they did not have – but Legge did.

Finding that they were skilled at teaching, as well as finding that they enjoyed it, made the change all the more rewarding.

“There are some people that just can perform like crazy, but they can’t get that message out,” Legge said. “They can’t articulate how to do it and [have] the patience — I think that’s the key — and liking kids.”

They are also aware that studies endorsed by musicians, as trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has long advocated, that music can help students develop other skills such as math. 

“I would definitely say our music students are probably more well-rounded, better academically, than probably most of the students here,” Dondero said. “I just think it’s that type of student.”

“We get a lot of the AP kids,” Legge said.

But he acknowledged it can create scheduling challenges as AP classes are only offered during certain periods, which can coincide with the band/chorus period.

“We borrow kids from each other,” Legge said, noting band and chorus kids are often moving between the two music rooms.

Their advice for the new music staff at W-H?

Legge advises keeping an open mind.

“The best thing is not to change everything that came before,” he said. “I would think you’d want to build off the strengths that were here already.”

“We’re happy to see that [the district] will be hiring two, full-time high school teachers,” Legge said on Monday, June 13, noting interviews were beginning that day. There were six to eight candidates for the position and Legge and Dondero participated in those interviews.

Another will be hired to direct the middle school band program out of Whitman Middle School, but serving both towns. There are already two full-time chorus teachers at the middle schools.

HANOVER — There are 150 new vocationally-trained graduates heading off into the workplace, on to college or preparing to serve in the military, following the South Shore Tech commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 4.

Graduation season often makes parents wistful a the passage of time, turning their bubbly, carefree children into purposeful young adults, and time was on the mind of students speaking during the commencement ceremony. 

But the Class of 2022 heard young voices of experience offering some sage advice to take with them on life’s race to whatever is next — don’t take the next chapter for granted.

Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said he knew the feeling, having watched his younger son’s graduation from Whitman-Hanson the night before.

“I still shake my head saying, where did the time go,” he said. “And I’m not alone: Graduates, I know that when your parents look at you decked out in your green robes, they aren’t just seeing the young adult who almost made them late to graduation, they aren’t focused on the teenager who likely has more clothes on their bedroom floor than in their bureau.”

Photos of their children’s progress from newborn, preschooler, the second-grade artwork on the refrigerator, trophies and certificates; endless drop offs at sports practices, and the frantic trips to the store for that last minute poster board project flash through parental memories, Hickey reminded the graduates. 

“And right now, in this time and place, all of these memories are fresh, as if they happened yesterday,” he said. “That is what graduation ceremonies are supposed to be for families and graduates, a delicate mix of sweetness and sadness, where we all spend some time looking forward and looking back. We do ask ‘Where did the time go?’ but we also whisper “I can’t wait for what comes next.’ 

Change, after all, is a constant factor of life. For some, that change came in the form of pandemic-related experiences that shifted their perspective, for others, like Valedictorian David Lowden, it came in the form of a diagnosis of ADHD and severe Dyslexia, which forced a change in the way he learned.

When he started attending night school, instead of being pulled out of classes each day for personal instruction, it was a change that made sixth-grade the first year he didn’t need to attend summer school. By his sophomore year at SST, Lowden was taken off his IEP because he had exceeded its expectations.

His advice — David’s Tried and True Methods for Success — outlines how he made change happen for himself: Find what helps you focus, ask for help, build bonds, never be complacent and learn from failure.

“We’ve all got a lot of learning ahead of us and we’re going to need a group willing to help get each other through,” Lowden said. “Whether that’s forming a study group, or like me, forming bonds with teachers and mentors, these supports are what make the impossible possible.”

Salutarotian Jackson Snyder of Hanover pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic as evidence of that, recalling the day in March 2020 when Hickey announced on the school intercom that there would be a two-week break to isolate and control the spread of the virus.

“But two weeks turned into 6 months. Then a year. And here we are, more than two years later, and things finally seem to be back to what they were,” Snyder said. “All of us have been through so much change, and that change helps to define who we are, and the people that we have become.”

But, reflecting on his experiences at the school over the past two pandemic years, he challenged the class to reflect on where they might be had things been different.

“Where would you have been had you stayed in your town schools,” he asked. “Where would you be if the pandemic had not taken place? Would you have met the people currently in your lives? Would you have had the opportunity to make all these memories? I know when I ask myself that very question, I can say that I am happier with who I am now.”

Change is, after all, something humans crave, and claim we need, observed Student Body President Grace Michel of Pembroke. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to speed up time. … I’ve spent a lot of my life just waiting for the next chapter, especially graduation.”

Thinking her first job would wait until after a long and leisurely youth, she said she grew up too soon — a fact she now regrets.

“While my friends went out to eat and the bowling alley, I went to work at the ice cream shop, the hockey rink, Dunkin Donuts, Barnes and Noble, and now the collision center,” she said. “I decided to bury myself in a sea of responsibilities, instead of enjoying things like going to the arcade, or the beach, or even just Five Guys. I never took the chance to be irresponsible and to be immature.”

She admonished her classmates to enjoy what comes next.

“Live it,” Michel said. “Don’t bury yourselves in responsibilities too soon, especially those that come with life. All my high school career, people around me have said, ‘‘Grace don’t overwhelm yourself, ‘Grace you take on too much,’ and ‘Grace slow down.’ I wish I took the time to listen. Now, I want you all to listen. Make sure you understand the chapter before you finish the book.” 

Senior Class President Gabriel Freitas of Rockland urged classmates to reflect on what makes them unique, including the experiences of their high school years as they enter their new world.

“Do not forget the people [who] have helped you along your journey,” Freitas said, advising his peers to follow a path that excites their passion. “Remembering the past helps you make decisions in the present. … You are in control of what happens next.”

The Class of 2022 has some big challenges ahead of them, and their send-off from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School on Friday, June 3, provided some sound advice for meeting those challenges.

And, as the messages of optimism, confidence and that advice hung in the springtime air, nature seemed to have the last word – hurry up – as a warm afternoon took a sudden, chilly, turn just as the 269 seniors were called to receive their diplomas.

The day’s strong sun had disappeared behind heavy, low clouds as humidity spiked and the temperature took a nose-dive, perhaps hastening the process.

But this was a class that had persevered through two years of Covid-19 and its effects on what once passed for a normal high school experience, and learned to meet that challenge with humor. 

“In our four years in high school, we’ve had to overcome unthinkable obstacles never before seen by anyone” Class speaker Aidan Hickey said. “We were forced to make adjustments, live in a way that was far from normal, and deal with our fears on a daily basis. But in the process we also learned real world lessons about how one’s actions can impact others, and we developed an appreciation for being together in person, even for the mundane things in life.”

One could hear it in the words they spoke and feel it in the adults they have become.

“It seems surreal that we are actually graduating now and our time in high school has come to an end, but I am confident that the best is to come,” Valedictorian April Keyes said. “As a side note, for those of you who may not already know, I do have a speech impediment, in particular a stutter, which is something to keep in mind during this and also a good reason to get comfortable.”

While how she said some phrases made it noticeable, what she said spoke louder and inspired a standing ovation before she was through.

“I used to be caught up in this idea of never speaking, believing that because I had a stutter, I automatically was meant to be quiet. Even two to three years ago, I think if someone had told me I would be giving a speech right now, I would have passed out, and I say that with very little exaggeration,” Keyes recalled. “But over time I got sick of missing out on conversations and potential new friends, avoiding clubs, and making strange promises to myself to not raise my hand in class. I eventually reached the truth about myself and every single person here: like everything else in the physical world around us, we, as people, are also complex and nuanced.”

The Harvard College-bound member of the school’s English, history, math and science honor societies assessed how her classmates will use their experience with Covid in approaching the problems of the world they now enter and will one day lead.

“As we move on into the diverse and confusing world, do not be afraid to match that diversity as well,” she said. “Whether you are going into the workforce, enrolling in college, joining the military, taking a gap year, or doing whatever you have decided best for yourself, know that your potential, as well as your options, are unlimited. Celebrate who you are in this very instant and all that you have achieved, but also look forward to all that you will be and do in the future.”

Salutatorian Mary Kate Ryan also touched on that theme.

“We are living as a generation caught in the middle of history. Between a dying planet, a never ending pandemic, countless social movements, and more there is so much that seems so far out of our control,” she said. “We’re told that we’re too young to do anything. Too inexperienced. Too ignorant. Except we aren’t. We are entering the adult world and we have the capacity to change it. With bounds of knowledge and the means to spread it at our fingertips, we have an immense power to create a world we want to live in. … Take the passion and drive within each of you and use it. It’s not about changing the entire world, but rather changing the world around you.”

School officials speaking at commencement also had these thoughts in mind as they offered their own advice to the Class of 2022.

School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard noted his remarks would brief, as he never could remember what had been said at his own high school graduation, but added he did have a point for the seniors to consider.

“Just be you,” he said. “It took me a while, but over time, I realized I just needed to be me, and more importantly, I needed to try as best as I could to let others be themselves.”

He was not alone in hitting on that theme.

“There’s way too much negativity in this world,” Superintendent Jeff Szymaniak said. “Don’t be that person. Be alive. …Be thoughtful and kind, because why not? There’s no reason not to be.”

While standing up for your principles, Szymaniak advised the class to be the person who makes everyone feel like somebody.

“Be respectful,” he said. “Believe it or not, not many people may believe what you believe. Don’t make fun or disregard their feelings because you don’t have the same points of view.”

Principal Dr. Christopher Jones took that advice a bit further as he admonished students to advocate honestly, practice positivity and treat everyone as a fellow human being.

“I encourage you to keep an open mind,” he said. “Examine other viewpoints, hold onto your beliefs and then stand up for what you believe in in an honest, open way.”

Jones summed up that it doesn’t matter what race, color, gender, sexual orientation a person is, whether they are rich or poor, or what faith a person ascribes to.

“We’re all human beings, with thoughts, dreams, goals, families, experiences and stories,” he said. “Take the time to realize that in everyone and you will begin to see the value everyone, especially those who are different, have to add to your life.”

He said the current world is in dire need of leaders who exhibit those traits.

“Be those leaders,” Jones said. “We will all be forever grateful.”

Members of the Whitman Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts wave to onlookers as they march in the town’s annual Memorial Day Parade Monday, above. At right, American Legion Acting Commander Jake Ellis salutes the wreath he placed on a memorial at Town Hall. See more photos, pages 9 and 10.

Photos by Carol Livingstone

HANSON – Most days the students participating in the WHRHS Transition Vocation Program’s students, including Grace Culley and Riley Miller at Channell Homestead farm on South Street in Hanson, spend their shifts doing the usual chores. 

They muck out horse stalls, feed the animals and, when there’s time, maybe pet the rabbits.

Playing midwife to a pregnant nanny goat was an unexpected addition to the job skills curriculum this month.

Farm owner Christianie Channell had a few errands to run while W-H adviser Sarah Hall and her students were working, and said the goat in question seemed perfectly fine. No signs of going into labor.

“We breed Nigerian dwarf goats, and that day a first-time mom goat had babies,” Channell said this week. “I didn’t think she was going to have babies until that afternoon, and I was out with my 3-year-old son, and I get a call from Sarah saying, ‘Um, I think the goat’s having babies!’”

Dottie, the nanny goat in question, decided she would be giving birth early.

Channell was at least 15 minutes away and told Hall, she was going to have to deliver the kids.

Hall admits she was a little unnerved by the whole thing, but her students knew what to do.

Grace took part in the midwifery. Riley was not present for the excitement.

“It was fun and gross at the same time,” Grace said.

“There was a lot of … um… liquid,” Hall expounded. “But I would say the students were more calm than I was.”

Grace agreed. She remembered that Channell used cloth towels and puppy house training pads to rub the kids vigorously to make sure they were breathing OK, as they had seen in a video the farm made of a previous birth.

They had been having lunch and were looking forward to “snuggle time” with the baby animals before returning to school, Hall recalled.

Grace and her friend Jackie had been checking on the goat frequently at the request of Ms. Channell, “and she ended up having babies,” Grace said.

Channell talked them through the birthing assistance n FaceTime.

“Out of nowhere, she just dropped down and plopped those babies out,” Channell said. “They all came together and [Hall] ended up FaceTiming me, so I just kind of told her what to do. They did everything just right.”

The students have been working at the farm since the beginning of the school year.

“They’ve been such a blessing,” said Channell, who said they would be doing a summer program as well and next school year.

The farm does other summer programs, including horseback riding lessons as well as running a farm stand that sells goat’s milk products. 

“We make all-natural body products,” she said. “I milk the goats every day. [The goat’s milk products] are really very beneficial to your skin.”

The WHRHS program places the students in real jobs at Dollar Tree, Meadow Brook, All-American Assisted Living and Channell Homestead to provide real job site experience. The students were also involved in renaming the program that was once known as the post-graduate program.

These students now have a bullet point in real-world experience of having to think on their feet to add to their résumé.