Memorial Day or Decoration Day as it was originally called, was a day set aside to honor those who served and died in wars. The unofficial start of summer is celebrated with parades, picnics, and the sale of red poppies.
Seldom do we consider the true cost of war. Those young men and women buried are gone, no longer feeling the pain of bullets, shrapnel, or flames. Sacrifices are endured by the living.
The children, growing up without a father, robbed of emotions never felt, grapple with lifelong emptiness. The picture on the mantle can’t slap them on the back when they hit their first home-run.
The broken promise of forever will haunt the surviving spouse until the day they die. Dreams cut by bullets quickly become nightmares.
Mothers cradle folded flags and hold only memories to their hearts. Fathers, always the protectors, feel an anguished helplessness that never fades.
The comrades, who by some miracle survived, carry the deepest indiscernible scars. They become the walking wounded, consumed by guilt and forever asking why.
Prideful patriotism only serves to mask the pain of war. War is not glorious. It is death and destruction.
Before I get off my soapbox, I have a couple recommended reads, a touching description of a Viet Nam soldier by Rosemary Goodwin and a commentary from Andy Rooney.
http://www.rosemarygoodwin.blogspot.com/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/26/60minutes/rooney/main697964.shtml
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THIS IS VERY MUCH A SOAPBOX. SINCE THE SUBJECT WAS OPENED AND STRUCK A NERVE...THIS IS MY WARNING...SOAPBOXING ALERT.
ReplyDeleteWe went to our Memorial Day parade. There were many veterans marching in the parade. We thanked them for their service and they seemed very proud.
War is not glorious. It is death and destruction.
Just like being crushed by a building, or burned alive by jet fuel when terrorists attack our country.
Just like knowing you'll never have a body to visit in a cemetary because nothing was left underneath tons of steel and cement.
Just like being beheaded for doing what is "FREE" in our country.
Just like women and children being murdered for trying to go to school.
Just like women burning themselves to death because that hell is better than the life they are leading.
Just like a couple being shot to death for getting married outside their families wishes.
Just like being married off to an elderly man when you are thirteen so that your dad can make an extra buck.
I guess we could stand by and let them take us over.
I guess we could stand by and be victims.
I guess we could all put on the burka and give in right now.
I don't know. I'm not a soldier. But I guess I'd rather we fight the evil out there and try to stop them than just stand by and let them attack us again.
Many children will grow up without a father or mother who they lost in the WTC/pensylvania plane crash/pentagon.
If we let them win, Mother's and Father's will be anguished over the loss of their children because of a terrorists agenda.
Ask a navy seal who has just rescued a hostage from torture and death why they serve our country.
Ask a WWII vet with shrapnel in their leg what their service was worth?
Ask a jew liberated from a concentration camp what they would have done without Russian and American soldiers on their side?
Of course war is death and destruction. But there is a reason. We can't stand back and let them win. Or there will be MORE death and destruction.
Do we leave the area, hide our heads under the ground, and hope they'll leave us alone?
If we love them and promise them peace, they'll laugh in our face even as they suicide bomb our citizens.
Okay...so what's the alternative?
Andy Rooney would like to see Memorial Day set aside to find an alternative to war, he says a new religion maybe? Good idea.
However, I don't know if some of the evil people in the world - who kill in the name of their religion - would go for that.
So until they do...who will protect us?