The practice of paying bonuses to veterans is as old as our country. Beginning in 1776, bonuses were given to soldiers to make up the difference of what they would have earned had they not enlisted.

President Calvin Coolidge enraged veterans of the Great War — that was before we started numbering our world wars — when he vetoed a bill that would have granted them bonuses, saying that patriotism which is bought and paid for is not patriotism.

A group of veterans that the press dubbed the Bonus Army marched on Washington with their wives and children — 43,000 strong in the spring of 1932, demanding cash for their service certificates. Many had lost their jobs in the Great Depression.

President Herbert Hoover ordered the Army to clear the camp. The Bonus Marchers cheered the troops, mistakenly believing they were there to honor their cause as civil-service workers lined Pennsylvania Avenue. Then the cavalry charged, followed by an infantry with bayonets and then by six tanks.

“Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” the crowd chanted.

Shame, indeed. The families were driven out.

That was a sad moment in American history, but not the first. Members of the Continental Army who went without pay had marched on Philadelphia — then the nation’s capital — in 1783 to demand their pay from Congress. The congressmen fled to nearby Princeton, New Jersey and the United States Army drove the veterans from the capitol.

Why bring up this history now? Because, as the old adage says, learning from our history keeps us from repeating it.

That’s why we listened when Ed Ackroyd of Knox came to our newsroom. He’s been a beacon for local veterans’ issues.  He fought in the Vietnam War, leaving Berne-Knox-Westerlo without graduating to join the Army. Last February, he amassed a group of veterans to speak to the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board — and even brought a plaque naming those local men who couldn’t speak; they had died in American wars.

The BKW board, like the school board in Guilderland, agreed to offer the Alternative Veterans Exemption — a new option to reduce school taxes for veterans.

We understand the reluctance of school board members to agree. If one group — in this case, veterans — is paying less, everyone is paying more. Many people feel at the breaking point when it comes to paying taxes.

And then, too, there is Coolidge’s sentiment — that patriotism isn’t something someone should be paid for. “Patriotism can neither be bought or sold,” said Coolidge. “It is not hire and salary. It is not material, but spiritual. It is one of the highest human virtues. To attempt to pay money for it is to offer it an unworthy indignity which cheapens, debases and destroys it.”

Especially now, when we have voluntary, rather than conscripted, military service in this country, presumably those who enlist know what they’re getting into. Or do they?

If men and women are fighting for our country — even in wars some of us may not support — don’t we owe them if they come back wounded, either mentally or physically? What if they don’t come home at all; what if they die in battle? Don’t their families deserve recompense?

One of the things we like about the Alternative Veterans’ Exemption is the way it is structured, in a tiered fashion. Our local school boards adopted, at the basic level, a $12,000 property assessment reduction for wartime service, an additional $8,000 for serving in a combat zone, and an additional $40,000 for service-related disabilities. It makes sense that those who served in war should be compensated, and those who were disabled by that war should be compensated more.

But what brought Ed Ackroyd to our office was he had discovered not everyone was getting the benefit. He had been told about the widow of a World War II veteran who didn’t get the exemption; her daughter called him, seeking help. Ackroyd said he asked local assessors about it and was told the widow would have to apply for the alternative exemption to get it next year.

“I explained to them, some of them don’t have until next year. When some of them are on Social Security, limited means — they could use these..,” he said.

Ackroyd came to our office with the commanders of Altamont’s two veterans’ groups — Timothy Hagerott of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Walter Johnson of the American Legion. Ackroyd had consulted with local assessors and thought some sort of glitch could have caused veterans from World War II and the Korean War not to get the benefits.

The veterans’ leaders, aware this was a complex issue, were less concerned with why some were excluded than they were with straightening it out. All three men had gotten the exemptions for themselves but were concerned and speaking out for their brothers in arms.

“Every veteran should be treated equal,” said Johnson. “They were in the service.”

Our reporter Marcello Iaia explains in our story that the law passed last year, with exemptions adopted by our local districts, extended just the Alternative Veterans’ Tax Exemption. It did not apply to the Eligible Funds Exemption, which is more often used by veterans of the Korean War and World War II.

Further, he learned that, as a staffer for Assemblyman Michael Cusiuk, a sponsor of the bill, put it, “We were sort of in brand new territory and did not intend to leave out a certain group of veterans.” She said later, after speaking with counsel, it was a matter of strategy to pass the bill.

They hope to pass another bill to include those veterans who qualify for the Eligible Funds Exemption. We support this leveling of the playing field, and are pleased it will still be up to individual school boards to decide. The sooner it becomes state law, the better.

We must emphasize, though, that with the current law as well as the proposed bill, veterans have to apply to get the exemptions. We were moved by the contingent of veterans who came to our newsroom because they cared about all veterans, not just the ones who belong to their organizations.

“Not all veterans join the American Legion or the VFW,” said Hagerott.  “They were unhappy with how they were treated in the service or when they came home. By us telling our posts, then 50 people know about it.”

So, we’re spreading the word, at least to our 20,000 readers: Apply for the benefits to which you are entitled.

We’ll close with another thought from Calvin Coolidge: “Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. In no other nation on earth does this principle have such concrete application.”

Let’s look out for our country by supporting those who served it. They, in turn, are the ones who take care of us.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer