Memorial Day
Today we celebrate (or I guess “commemorate” is more like it) Memorial Day as a tribute to U.S. men and women who have died in military service. It’s a somber occasion, observed—ironically—by picnics, backyard barbecues, and sporting events.
It occurs to me on this day that I don’t know personally (or knew, that is) a single person who died in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines—or even the Coast Guard. This illustrates clearly, I think, the class divide in our country and reveals in stark outline the way in which military service falls so much more heavily on the backs of families who aren’t like me, middle class, college educated, and White.
I’m not exactly sure how I should feel about this. Certainly, I’m grateful for the sacrifice of those who have died to secure the freedoms I enjoy. And, understandably, I do feel some guilt that I’ve been so lucky as to not suffer any losses personally in that effort.
But additionally, I also feel angry that so many of the deaths have been, to my way of looking at it, totally unnecessary. Of the thousands who have died in the current Iraq War, how many have really sacrificed their lives for a meaningful cause? Of the tens of thousands who died in Vietnam, how many really helped make me, as an American, safer, freer, or more secure?
To ask these questions is not, I hope, to convey any disrespect for the lives lost; I have no doubt about the nobility of all the fallen and nothing but respect for their efforts.
But the wars themselves do not, I think, have any similar measure of nobility. Every one—at least in my lifetime—seems a grave failure of the human spirit. Each represents a defeat for the highest ideals of human beings—compassion, understanding, trust, and care.
On this day, therefore, I mourn not only lives lost, but opportunities missed, as well.
It occurs to me on this day that I don’t know personally (or knew, that is) a single person who died in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines—or even the Coast Guard. This illustrates clearly, I think, the class divide in our country and reveals in stark outline the way in which military service falls so much more heavily on the backs of families who aren’t like me, middle class, college educated, and White.
I’m not exactly sure how I should feel about this. Certainly, I’m grateful for the sacrifice of those who have died to secure the freedoms I enjoy. And, understandably, I do feel some guilt that I’ve been so lucky as to not suffer any losses personally in that effort.
But additionally, I also feel angry that so many of the deaths have been, to my way of looking at it, totally unnecessary. Of the thousands who have died in the current Iraq War, how many have really sacrificed their lives for a meaningful cause? Of the tens of thousands who died in Vietnam, how many really helped make me, as an American, safer, freer, or more secure?
To ask these questions is not, I hope, to convey any disrespect for the lives lost; I have no doubt about the nobility of all the fallen and nothing but respect for their efforts.
But the wars themselves do not, I think, have any similar measure of nobility. Every one—at least in my lifetime—seems a grave failure of the human spirit. Each represents a defeat for the highest ideals of human beings—compassion, understanding, trust, and care.
On this day, therefore, I mourn not only lives lost, but opportunities missed, as well.
posted by Professor Dave at 11:05 AM
1 Comments:
Unnecessary is right - Last night I watched the news for a few minutes, and decided that the sight of our president talking about honoring the valiant war dead - people who got killed because of his insistence on going to war in Iraq - is offensive.
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