I'm sure this is going to piss a lot of people off, but it's my blog and not yours, so deal with it.
I think it's important to set a day aside to honor those who gave their lives in service to this country. But I don't need to be told what to do about it.
If some people want to regard Memorial Day as merely a day off of work or school, or the start of the summer, or the opening of the summer movie season, or just an excuse to gather the family and have a cookout, I don't really care. It's their deal. It's not anybody's job to bully them into being more reverent on Memorial Day. It's certainly not my job to care how people spend their holidays. What people do on a day like Memorial Day doesn't lessen how I feel about it, and doesn't affect how I choose to spend it.
I also don't need to be told about the importance of what soldiers have done in the history of the country I was born in and have lived in all my life. I don't disrespect that at all.
I take issue with the hero-worshiping sentiments, however. I take issue with the ever-increasing fetishizing of military personnel as automatically exempt from the mundane bonds of their humanity. I do not abide by the thought that "for just one day" we should all put aside our beliefs and ideals--oh, excuse me, "politics and bickering"--just because the calendar has set aside a day for people to remember military sacrifice. Military sacrifice is relevant to our lives every day, not just one day a year. And if you honor what people have fought and died for, if you honor the ideals of this country, then it is absolutely important that we continue to demand answers when that sacrifice has been misused and dishonored.
Who dishonors the sacrifices of soldiers more? Me, for being angry that Afghanistan is now officially our longest-fought war, that our government lied to us and send soldiers to die and kill in Iraq, and that we keep reacting to all of this freedom we supposedly have by entertaining discussions about taking away the constitutional rights of US citizens? Or the Bush Administration for demanding a media blackout on military coffins returning to the United States?
I do honor my soldiers. I honor them so much that I don't want them to die for lies. I don't want them to be sent to die because the Bush or Obama Administrations don't know how to conduct criminal investigations against terrorists and instead throw the military at countries they don't know how to deal with. I honor them so much that hearing we've passed the 1000th American casualty in Afghanistan makes me sick.
If you think I blame the military for the mistakes of our government, there's no reasoning with you.
If people want to misread that, I really don't care. People are going to overreact to whatever they want.
Have a nice Memorial Day. We have a thunderstorm here. It's your freedom, do whatever you want with it. People died so you could have it.
UPDATE 4:32 PM: Yes.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Memorial Day
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5 comments:
Thanks, Green... very well said, perfectly appropriate and spot-on. My thanks for your honesty and candor, as always. Anyone who gets mad at your sage observation just isn't paying attention, or they're just too stupid for their own good, likely from breathing in too much BBQ smoke. Like it or not, you are my digital hero.
Excellent points. I too am angered at the people who say they support the troops but do nothing to insure that they get everything they need when they return home to continue the lives they put on hold.
I hate how they can be 'stop losted' and kept in service much longer than their contract they signed with the gov't in good faith said they had too.
I hate how their lives are put in danger for reasons that only damage the credibility of the US.
I wish they could serve AT HOME where they are most needed in a country whose infrastructure is falling apart.
The medical treatment they require after being wounded is also not enough. With modern medicine it is easier to keep soldiers alive after injury than it ever has been in the past. That leads to lifelong care needs that are nickled and dimed.
I can understand why Memorial Day is important to some people. If a day of remembrance makes them feel good, it's no skin off my back. However, as someone who hasn't served in the military or, for that matter, really been personally affected by the horrors of war outside of the terrible images I've seen, I do not have the emotional connection to the holiday that others who have lost loved ones might have. My sadness resides more in the fact that - at this stage in human development - rich, powerful people can still order poor people with relatively no power to kill other poor, powerless people.
#1, thanks for the link.
#2, you are spot on.
Thank God(dess) for you, Aaron. I avoided the internet and television as much as I could this weekend because I can't stand the all or nothing rhetoric. I have multiple very friends in active duty who I love and respect with all my heart. That doesn't mean I support these wars. And more importantly, just because they serve doesn't mean the men and women in duty also support it. People don't just sign up for the military because they want to die for their country. Many sign up because they don't see options in their future with a horrible economy and some, like my friend, sign up to help pay for the education they want desperately but can't afford. There is this huge suspended belief that all military personnel are selfless and they aren't. We are so obsessed with hero rhetoric that we forget that these men and women have lives at home...and are scared shitless.
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