I was watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBOGo on Monday afternoon. Well, trying to watch the show, after their advertisement for the Concert for Valor that was to be held on Tuesday. This was a free concert in Washington DC on the National Mall featuring quite the line-up. Artists ranged from Eminem to Metallica to the Zac Brown Band. The concert, after doing some research, was designed to raise awareness for service organizations dedicated to veterans, as well as to express the nation’s genuine support of our veterans. HBO also requests people show their support for veterans by posting photos of themselves with their hand over their heart.

This sounds like an excellent event. Crowds are expected to top 800,000 people packed into the National Mall, and an untold number will tune in through the various streaming channels. If HBO is attempting to prove people love free live music by the most popular artists in the country, the experiment is successful. I might be channeling my inner grumpy old man, but I am curious to know how many of these people would be standing at the National Mall for a memorial service for the millions of veterans who have died in defense of this nation? How many of them would reach out to a homeless veteran just outside their home? How many would volunteer at a Veterans Administration hospital? I would love to say all of them, but I know that simply isn’t the case. I fail to see a true connection between a free concert open to the public and support for America’s veterans.

There is a donations page on the concert’s website, so perhaps this will lead to increased funding for several of the charities partnering with HBO on this project. I’m certainly skeptical of the connection between the concert and any charitable effort. I’m even more skeptical, though, of the request for selfies tagged #ConcertForValor. This is hardly new; Twitter commemoration of an event occurs constantly. I’m not faulting every Twitter post; many people have family and friends oversees or grandparents who fought bravely in America’s past wars. My issue isn’t with the posts so much as it is with the self-fulfillment posters seek.  I can post a tweet about supporting the veterans, maybe wear some red and blue clothes, and consider my civic duty fulfilled. 

Veteran’s Day began to commemorate Armistice Day, the unofficial end to World War I. First celebrated in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson said about the holiday, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

Solemn pride. Can a selfie be solemn? The concert will certainly not be solemn; Metallica and Jessie J will be playing. There will be plenty of pride on display, but is it pride in the service of veterans, or is the pride all self-centered? Instead of posting an inspirational tweet, live inspirational lives. We are hyperaware of the world around us; we need that awareness to translate to something larger, something more substantive. Instead of talking about making a difference, make the difference. I don’t think anyone needs to be told that will mean a lot more than any selfie.