Something Has Begun to Bother Me
Last week, I marched in the Memorial Day Parade in the
community where I live in Wisconsin. I
have marched in the parade for many years, and I enjoy it. It has a small-town feel about it, and after a long winter, it is great to spend time outdoors with
friends on a warm spring day. However, something about the parade has begun to
bother me. I think we are missing the point of the holiday.
What is Memorial Day About?
Memorial Day is about remembering the people who gave their
lives to preserve our freedom. As such, it should be a solemn holiday, and it
should inspire us to think about those people and to remember the occasions
when we have called on our children (most soldiers are very young) to risk
their lives. Memorial Day should be a day for solemn reflection. It should not
be a day for mindless, flag-waving patriotism, but that is what it has become. Participants
in the parade wave flags, and high school bands play patriotic march tunes.
There are floats glorifying our country, but all that feels wrong. There should be floats
with the names of the local people who lost their lives in our many wars. We
should recite their names.
We should also think about the wars
in which they died. Were all of them really justified? Have we always been honest with our children when we sent them off to war? Have we ever
asked them to risk their lives for unnecessarily? Has our freedom really always been
at stake?
We Have Not Always Been Honest
As I marched in the parade, I could not help remembering the
occasions in my lifetime when we dishonestly asked our children to make great sacrifices. We
sent them off to fight in wars that did not really defend our freedom. Our
children fought for many years in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Each of those
wars was lost without diminishing our freedom here in the United States. In
effect, we lied to our children and to ourselves when we asked them to show “the
last full measure of devotion.” We should think about that; we should recognize our guilt; and we should resolve to do better in the future.
We Should Be Honest in the Future
On Memorial Day, we should not wave flags. We should
remember the people who died, and we should accept our responsibility for their
deaths. We should resolve never again to send our children to war on false
pretenses. We should be honest with our children and with ourselves.
