Today is Memorial Day, 2015. It’s a day when people flood
your social media with unimaginative, jingoistic images about dying for our
freedoms. Some pay lip service to the idea of honoring the dead, because they’ve
been taught to do so. Others talk briefly about friends and family who served
and died, while others get confused and thank the living for their service
(that’s Veteran’s Day, and if you really want to thank them for their service,
don’t just wait for one day a year). Mostly, people seem to use it as an excuse
to grill and drink (and if you need an excuse to do those, you shouldn’t be
doing them in the first place).
While I’ve had friends and family in all branches of the
service, I’ve never really been one to “celebrate” Memorial (or Veteran’s) Day.
Now in some part this is due to my position that the last time soldiers died
for our freedoms was arguably the Slaver’s Uprising (calling it The Civil War
improperly lends legitimacy to the side of the Slaver’s).
But more than that, it’s because I don’t feel a need to
honor them inside. What I feel is mourning and sorrow that they had to serve
and die in wars that, in most cases, should not have been fought. Don’t
misunderstand me; I’m not anti-war, or pro-war. I’m a pretty firm believer in the
idea that violence can solve problems, and is sometimes the best solution to a
problem. I understand that sometimes military force is required to implement change
for the better. I just don’t think we’ve done much of that in my lifetime.
I feel sorrow that they (and us still) were taken, or felt
the need or call to join a machine that only ground them up for fodder. I
regret that we still jump to armed conflict to solve problems.
I mourn them because they were pawns in games played by
those in power, for reasons as fragile as ego and/or vengeance. Because they
tried to do what they thought was right, but were simply guns aimed at the
wrong targets.
I lament that many of them were killed by a system that they
participated in for an opportunity at a better life, because the system would otherwise
grind them down even more quickly had they not joined the service.
I think the sentiment behind Memorial Day was well-intended,
but was also post-war propaganda.
I think some people mean what they say on Memorial Day, but
many don’t.
I think we should mourn the War Dead a little bit every day,
and that we should take Memorial Day and turn it into Let’s Try to Avoid
Getting Young Men and Women Killed or Maimed For Shitty Fucking Reasons Day.
So while you enjoy your grilled animal flesh and liquefied grains,
contemplate the idea that maybe we should be doing more to reduce the future
numbers of War Dead. It’s not a party, it’s a time you should use for thinking
about the world around you and what can be done to make it better (like every
other day).
That’s all.
Actually that’s not all. If you see a politician
prostituting Memorial Day to further an agenda, call them out on that shit.
