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Thoughts on Memorial Day

I have written this essay not to change your mind, but rather I am asking you to look at things from a different direction. I am asking you to reconsider waving a flag, or of disrespecting those that do. I am asking that you allow for difference in opinion. And to make your actions to be in support of those that have served.

Note: As I look for an appropriate image for this essay, I am finding that the image of a US in distress (flag facing left) has been co-opted by people that support a movement that I find distasteful. Those images of the Peace symbol have been co-opted by those that are more interested in protest than finding peace. So I am going to leave this essay imageless. 

  

 As someone who came of age in the Peace Movement, I have always found Memorial Day difficult. I despise the machines of war that serve mostly to further greed and domination by those in power. My heart aches for those duped into supporting the Motherland (or Fatherland). At the same time I deeply honor those that have served and sacrificed, willingly or not. The fact that we differ in our view of how to achieve a world of freedom and peace does not diminish the quality of their valor.

For 60 years, on the Sunday before the last Monday in May I have spent time thinking about how these two diametrically opposed ideas can co-exist and be celebrated. Is their action less valorous because I think it was the wrong action towards a cause we both support? Likewise, is my opposition to the military complex less valid because you believe that supporting a strong military is the better path?


Think of the last time there was a military attack on the United States. What is the first thing that comes to mind. Nope that was not the military branch of another government. Nope not that one either, it wasn’t a state till 1959. Nope not that one was one part of the US attacking another part. Look at this list in Wikipedia. Do you understand how lucky we are to live in a place like this?

Spending much time in the UK, and being there on their Remembrance Day, I have seen how people that lived under attack, have Memorial statues and gardens. And how their anti war stance can be part of that without dishonoring those that served. I was in the Soviet Union, Leningrad particularly. I saw how the survivors of the Siege of Leningrad were given special privilege, like allowing them to the front on any line.



Here are some of the things I do to honor the people that have given of their lives, and sometimes given their lives, in pursuit of a safe and free world.

  • Help a Vet. Many that return from war do not come back whole in body or mind. If you do not know one of these people, go to any homeless encampment and you will find dozens. Serve a meal, take someone shopping for new underpants and socks. Do more than put a few coins in their cup. Go to the home of someone that came back without limbs, and offer to do some of the chores they find most difficult. Do day care for one of your colleagues that was off in the military while you were busy climbing the career ladder.

  • Demand VA Accountability. Many of the promises made to young people when they join the military are forgotten when they get back and need those services. That any vet has to struggle to get the medical support they were promised is a shame to the whole country.

  • Look at the World. There is a lot of bad stuff happening out there. So it has always been. It can be overwhelming. But you can’t just hide under a rock and pretend it does not exist. Spend just this one day looking at just one conflict going on at this moment in time. I don’t care what side you are on, look at what the other side has to say. Listen for that grain of truth that resonates. Now go find the brave people that are giving their lives to stop the conflict, to aid the innocents. Give those people your support in some substantive way.

  • Study Peace. Spend some time learning about some of the lesser known peaceniks. There are many stories about Gandhi, and King. Sister Mary Corita Kent and Utah Phillips were two that shaped my thinking. The story of Edith Cavell is devastating. War and Peaceniks, by Alan Green has a list of people, some quite unexpected. 

  • Read a book. Two books I finished in the last couple of weeks were about PTSD, or shell shock as it was called. My father was an army medic. His peers included people from four different wars, so Laurie R. King’s Keeping Watch resonated deeply. Both Jacqueline Winspear’s Masie Dobbs looks at and Charles Todd’s A Test of Wills feature main characters that deal with the after affects of war.



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