“Also, for your email question, I would like to know the
appropriate response to Memorial Day. I
realize these people made the ultimate sacrifice, but on the other hand they
were on a fool's errand, and honoring them perpetuates the entire set-up that
enriches the military-industrial complex.
They sacrificed, but it was a wasted sacrifice. And in the end, our honor of this sacrifice
may lead to many lives destroyed by war, and eventually our extinction.”
I struggle with some of the same issues. I think the
appropriate response is what a person believes in his or her heart. I hope we can always
empathize with families who have lost loved ones. We all have experienced loss
through someone’s passing. Many service men and women have the intent of
serving their country and are willing to make that “ultimate sacrifice.” It is
beyond my pay grade and knowledge to know what is in another person’s heart and
soul...
We can question the policies of the government and think war
is not the answer to international issues. We can work for peace and
humanitarian alternatives to conflict and differences. The intent of those who
served their country has little to do with the intent of those who make decisions
about war and peace.
We remember those on Memorial Day who lost their lives in
the service of their country.
There are many who have researched and written about the
various ways we have entered wars in the past. There can be arguments made that
wars were begun to protect the assets of bankers and corporations more than
safe-guarding the people of the United States. These investigations usually do
not get much air time on the media or in the history books since countries seem
to be bent of spinning history a certain way and assume readers will buy it
without question.
We know there are many veterans who have seen the realities
of war and now disagree with policies of their government. I think I remember
reading that we are free to dissent and disagree with our government and all
can do so, even if it seems like the “military-industrial complex” continues to
get its way and continues to grow more powerful.
Patriotism also can involve critical thinking which honors
the fallen men and women of our families and neighbors… and also honors honest
discussion and disagreements about the path our government should take in the
affairs of the world. It is impossible for us to pronounce that any loss of
life is “a wasted sacrifice.” It may seem that way as we "think" about the issues and results from afar....and we may choose to see it that way of course. Yet
we honor the lives of those who have died, for having lived and done the best
they could in the circumstances in which they found themselves or in which they were placed by their "superior officers." I was in the military during the Vietnam era and we all know how much turmoil the conflicts about that war created throughout the United States and around the world. I was a much younger man and in many ways more innocent and trusting of our government in those days.
For the most part, that has changed dramatically.
I found myself on a summer’s day in the mid-nineties driving across
the country... and stopped for a time in a national cemetery. I stood there amidst the graves
of many who had died whiling “serving their country.” I was overcome with
emotions of many colors… grief and loss at their passing as I read how young
many of them were… grateful and guilty that somehow I made it through those
service years without ever being shot at… It was a day of thankfulness and of
memorializing those men and women who had passed... honoring their stories and lives as well as my own. Of course it was after I had grown and knew the
futility of the war games our world plays, along with the back door operations
that go on to please bankers and the wealthy. I had learned that in the light
of the world there is also much darkness and deceit. Yet it did not stop me for
honoring those who got caught in the games that too often are played by little
boys wearing grown-up disguises.I understand the danger in glorifying war and its "heroes." And I honor all lives lived in integrity, honor, and with the intent to serve others. I hope we make Memorial Day a time of reflection that goes deep into the heart and also deeply into critical thinking about these issues of life and death.
john@sunhutch.com
www.sunhutch.com
As much as I sympathize with and am angered by the ideas re. "the military-industrial complex," somehow we must learn to separate our feelings about the individuals and their families who have suffered so much from the politicians' wrongful decisions. Perhaps someday we will be able to find a way to honor each individual's right to die as he or she chooses without pretending that their deaths honor some generalized idea of jingoistic patriotism. I cannot believe, for example, that all those soldiers and civilians who have died in a wrongful war in Iraq died "protecting us." Some of us will continue to disagree about these ideas, but we must never give in to those who continue to make their decisions on purely political rationalizations and who treat our young men and women as if they were inanimate, soulless weapons. I am very grateful that we no longer have a national universal military draft. (But that issue raises many more questions, doesn't it?!)
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