Well here we go again, good old Memorial Day and the celebration of another 3 day week-end, oh ya, and also to honor our fallen military. For some, the day does really mean nothing more then an additional day off from work, for others, it's the official beginning of the summer season, and for others another excuse for family get-together, to drink beer and act stupid.
For many people, little is understood about the holiday that costs American business millions of dollars in vacation pay and also a lost day of production. The very first observance of Memorial Day was held in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1st. 1865 at the grave site of 257 Union soldiers, labeling the grave site "Martyrs of the Race Course," Black Charlestonians created this American tradition.
Throughout the country, Decoration Day begin to be observed during the next few years. In 1866 a friendship between General John Murray and General John A. Logan joined together to help bring attention to the event nationwide. By 1868 there were events at 183 cemeteries in 27 states and a year later the number had swelled to 336.
Michigan adopted Decoration Day and made it an official holiday in 1871 and by 1890 every Norther state had made May 30th. an official holiday. In the South, in 1866 Decoration Day was held anywhere from April 26th. to mid June. The early Decoration Day ceremonies were somber events, used by veterans and family members to honor their dead and to tend to grave sites.
Around 1890 there was a shift from the consolatory emphasis honoring of the dead and tending to grave sites to a more aggressive public commemoration of the Confederate "lost cause." In the South the celebration was like a renewal of Southern conservatism and values, however by the middle of the second decade of the 20th. century the theme of Decoration Day had changed to embrace American nationalism.
The name Decoration Day gradually changed to Memorial day, until Memorial Day became more commonly used after World War 11 and was officially changed in 1968, when Congress passed the Uniform Holiday Bill, which moved 4 holidays from their traditional dates to a specific Monday, creating three-day-weekends. Memorial Day was changed to the last Monday in May and although universally accepted, in recent years, there has talk by some military groups to change the day back to the more traditional date
During the past 8 or 10 years, Memorial Day has taken on a more somber meaning to veterans and the families, friends, wives or husbands that have loved ones currently serving. With the war on terror, and the battles that are going on in Afghanistan, Iraq and other points in the world, there is a more urgent feeling of awareness regarding Memorial Day.
Individuals this weekend will hoist their flags, watch parades, chant prayers, visit cemeteries across the nation, all to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. I am proud to fly my flag this Memorial Day weekend, but with a tempered feeling that has festered in my heart for the past several years.
The feeling that I have held in check, is one of coming to an understanding of what war means during the past 10 years. The wars that we now wage, as a nation, are wars of election, not of retaliation, or to safeguard our borders. They are wars of attrition, to chip away at terror so we don't have to fight it on our home soil.
For a vast number of Americans, the draft was the big equalizer, everybody was eligible for the draft unless there was a medical problem, or they had a job that was a necessity to the war effort. Sure people used all sorts of influence to "dodge" the draft, but most did not have the influence to do so.
War was an "in your face" confrontation, where you actually saw the face of your enemy, saw the bodies explode, where you had to deal with mass destruction and you felt the "luck" of not becoming a statistical number on a list of dead, or almost worse, wounded.
Much of war today, is an antiseptic push button war, where soldiers don't see the enemy until they are called on to rut out the enemy, long after the bombing has stopped. The bravery of these young soldiers, "on both sides" is unbelievable and they are to be commended and honored. To do anything less would be a travesty to what they do.
I do not honor the enemy of the American soldier, rather I give them a grudging respect for their belief in what they fight for, and their effort. Whether they are right or wrong, for me, is not to answer, I leave that to the future historians that will one day write an honest and undiluted account of what happened, there is no right or wrong in war, just survivors.
Sadly today, dying for freedom is more the exception then the rule, in most cases, United States military personnel are dying not for America, but for Washington. Soldiers today are not dying for liberty, or for freedom, they are dying for a politician, or a political point of view, or for some industrial giant.
Young men and women feel a draw to the romantic notion that serving in the United States military will somehow give them meaning to their lives, will elevate them to a higher plain because they are fighting for American liberty, or to protect our way of life.
Consider our government's latest string of battles.....it is hard to keep a straight face while arguing an alleged national interest involving Libya. Why intervene in this civil war, when there are many others going on around the world?
Iraq is a war that has been going on for more then 9 years, yet we remain, and conditions are little better. We have spread ourselves so thin, militarily around the world, that we now employ private contractors to do our bidding. These people are little more then thugs, or bandits, involved only for the millions that they are paid.....by our tax dollars.
It is past time for the majority of Americans, who are disinterested in the silly conflicts that our country wages throughout the world. It is time for those of us right minded people to stand up and be heard. Enough is enough. Those political people making hey off the misery of the fallen soldiers, their family members and friends, need to stop.
There is no reason for soldiers to dye on foreign soil, the war on terror is a fictitious hoax that has replaced the cold war that ended in 1990. Here is a novel idea, bring our troops home, station them on our boarders to keep our people safe from the drug war that we are losing every day.
Ours is "NOT" to do and die, lets all live, live in peace
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