Memorial Day

Excerpts from
Memorial Day: Pick Your Perversion
an article by  Leah Bolger
on the Veterans for Peace web site:
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2012/05/25/memorial-day--pick-your-perversion

Memorial Day, originally known as “Decoration Day,” was created in the aftermath of the Civil War as a day to honor the memory and sacrifice of Union soldiers who had died in battle. It later broadened to include the theme of reconciliation, honoring Confederate soldiers as well; and through the years has become a day to remember all U.S. military personnel who have died in combat. Increasingly, it evolved from simply decorating the graves and solemn memorialization of those killed, to opportunities for flag-waving, nationalistic displays with parades, marching bands and political speeches. Today, it has become a perversion of its original intent in two ways.

Perversion #1—Commercialism/Consumerism/Entertainment

Nearly all American holidays have been transformed from their original intents and into opportunities for economic profits, and Memorial Day is arguably the best example. Memorial Day has turned into Memorial Day weekend—a time for shopping, watching the Indianapolis 500, and kicking-off the summer.
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Perversion #2—American Exceptionalism

This perversion of Memorial Day is typified by the glorification of war and everyone who participated in it. God is always on our side (which means we are always right). Politicians try to outdo each other in their effusive thanks for the military, and refer to everyone who has ever worn a military uniform as a hero. God, guns and glory are wrapped up in the flag, and the whole package is given the credit for all that is good: liberty, freedom, justice, and the American Way of Life. Perversion #2 is of much more concern because of the ideology that it represents.

It is very dangerous when the people of a nation believes it can do no wrong; that it can operate outside of international law; and that God is on its side. Because when a nation is so confident in its righteousness, it loses any capacity for objectivity. On Memorial Day we remember the American war dead, but never question the necessity for the battle. We cannot bear to think that American lives lost in war might have been in vain, and so we continue to insist that we are on the side of right.

We never second guess our country, because if we come to the realization that the war is wrong, for whatever reason, then we have to accept responsibility for all of those killed in our wars—not just our own. In the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan, that seems way outside the capacity of the American public, who are only now starting to question whether the sacrifice of more U.S. troops is “worth it.” We have not even thought to question whether the sacrifice of Iraqis and Afghans is worth it—more than 90% of whom were non-combatants.
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On this Memorial Day, Veterans For Peace asks you to mourn not only for Americans killed in battle, but also for those killed by Americans in battle. We ask you to be willing to accept the fact that these war deaths did not have to happen—that they are actually in vain.

Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died in American wars of aggression. That is a tragedy and is a truth that must be accepted and for which we must take responsibility.

Leah Bolger

Bio: Leah Bolger spent 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy and retired in 2000 at the rank of Commander. She is currently a full-time peace activist and serves as the National President of Veterans For Peace.

Our society today is one that finds violence acceptable and inevitable. In many small ways our culture teaches us that war is noble. To end war we will need to become a society where peace is so much part of who we are that war becomes utterly unacceptable. Veterans For Peace helps create that culture in politics, music, schools, poetry, celebrations and much more. We invite you to enjoy and to join us!
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/our-work/building-a-culture-of-peace/

The Veterans For Peace mission statement states that we pledge to work for peaceful conflict resolution and the elimination of war—the ultimate violence. As veterans of conscience, we are compelled to take a stand against police violence.
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/our-work/building-a-culture-of-peace/veterans-peace-teams/

... how do we put a price tag on the grief in a mother's heart when her child comes home in a coffin; on the anguish a father feels after he's taken down his son's body from a noose; on the unending pain and surgeries of a soldier burned and disfigured in an explosion; on the terror that wakes a veteran, sweating and shaking, out of too-frequent nightmares?
What about the "opportunity costs" as economists call them -- when the blood of future doctors, teachers, farmers, inventors and engineers drain into the sands of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iran, Yemen and who-knows-where-else?
Who tallies the cost over decades of "ripple effects" as families and communities pick up the pieces left by veterans who can't quite hold a job, raise a family, finish school or stay out of jail under the pressures of PTSD?
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http://www.veteransforpeace.org/our-work/true-costs-of-war/

Healing the wounds of war is central to the call for peace - whether those wounds be in the countries where bombs were dropped or in the homes and hearts of veterans in our own society.
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http://www.veteransforpeace.org/our-work/healing-the-wounds-of-war/