Celebrated on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service.
The human loss at war rose dramatically in the 20th century; due to the effectiveness of weapons of mass destruction, bigger planes, heavier bombs, more lethal munitions.
Even today, ten years into the 21st century we somehow manage to trade in our civilization for our early caveman days, to cash in our humanity in exchange for the madness of bloodbath. The closer we have come to one another, the harder we fight to separate – as if each one of us is of the same polarity.
Memorial Day is not about being brave and dying in battle, about reaching summits to plant the national flag. It’s not about who killed the most, not about how many died and for what cause and purpose.
Memorial Day is mostly about those who returned home and what happened from that point on in their lives.
Memorial Day is about the wounded, physically and emotionally. It’s about those that witnessed war brutality first hand and swore “never again”. It’s about those that cried when they killed another human being. It’s about those that returned to their families and taught their children that there is no victory for humanity that stems from war.
Tomorrow – on Memorial Day – please don’t watch Rambo movies, save them for when there is no football on television. But try to watch “The Best Years of Our Lives” instead, a 1946 movie that honors humanity as a whole – those that were lost in the war and those that returned from it with a renewed hunger for life.
Well said, Theo.
Fortunately or unfortunately, all the things you say are terrible had to happen for us to become a country where you for the most part, do what you want to do, say what you want to say, and be who you want to be. It’s not a celebration of the pain and suffering, it’s a day to honor those that had to go through it. It’s the reason why people move here from Greece 🙂
Shane, the suffering remains with those that return from war either maimed or intact and need to make a difference in their lives; both for themselves and those of their families and that of others. George Washington said “If we don’t learn our history, we’re doomed to repeat it.”
Pain, suffering, war, death and destruction are all unfortunate tragedies. God bless the men and woman that have protected my right to say that and anything else on my mind.
Excellent post. It’s also a time to remember present day soldiers under duress in Afghanistan and Iraq while battling with the notion of being there in the first place. A needless war is very different from a necessary war.