Tomorrow is Memorial Day. So although it’s a day early, I’m using the occasion to repost something I wrote six years ago. It definitely needs repeating.
It’s Memorial Day. It isn’t a day that puts me in a good mood. It is a day to mourn, not to celebrate. We seem to have forgotten that part of it.
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.
The day has now become an occasion for mainstream media to pour out an unrelenting stream of stories promoting the mythology of the heroic warrior killed in battle. It’s the kind of myth that does a great disservice by aiding and abetting the glorification of state-ordered killing.
When I think about war, I think about the nearly two million men of my generation who were drafted and given a hard choice–prison or war. It wasn’t pretty, whichever choice was made. Many didn’t come back (about 18,000 draftees died in combat). Many more of those who did found their lives changed for the worse, as veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are now finding.
I think about those who were ensnared by official government lies and distortions, from the Pentagon Papers to the Saddam’s nonexistent WMDs.
I also think about victims of the economic draft, who are driven to join the military because it seems the only way to avoid chronic unemployment.
I think about the men and women of conscience who have suffered because their conscientious objection to war and killing is disrespected and marginalized, with the complicity of our mainstream media.
I think about the old white men who send young men off to kill and die.
I wonder what would happen if we had boot camps and basic training in peace making and conflict resolution, instead of basic training that breaks down our natural reluctance to take the lives of others.
And I think, as I do each and every year, how many more? How many more must die in wars before we decide there must be better ways to settle differences or manage power.
Photo: Memorial Day Protest, Punchbowl National Cemetery, 1971. Click on the photo for more.
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Memorial Day isn’t about “aiding and abetting the glorification of state-ordered killing”; it’s about honoring the memory of those who didn’t make the decision to go to war but who did what their country asked of them and paid the ultimate price. You and I, Ian, are of the Vietnam War generation, and I’m sure you knew, as I did and do, friends who suffered because of that war. I honor those who went as well as those who didn’t because of principled opposition to the war. But Memorial Day is for those who went and didn’t come back, as well as their compatriots in wars before and since.
I share your feelings and thoughts concerning Memorial Day. I remember when it was Declaration Day, the VFW did their ceremony, and we decorated family graves. Also stores were closed in respect. No Memorial Day Sales which so demeans the occasion.
IAN, thank you for the only sobering and real account of “Memorial Day”.
Hard to believe people are going around wishing each other a “Happy Memorial Day”, as if.
The Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Cold Wars, and Iraq and Afghanistan are events meant to grieve, honor, and reflect.
For better or worse, at age 51, I never served in the military or any wars. Like many of my generation, I experienced war through the lens of television and mass media. However, at age 18, I was required to register for selective service. Now that was an interesting conversation with my mother and father. Wonder how things would have been different for Bush I and Bush II if they had ordered the draft for their respective wars in the middle east?
Most likely not as popular if young men of all socio-economic backgrounds were told to serve like it or not.
And yes, of course, growing up I heard the stories of young men going off to “Nam” and never returning. Once again, just stories and visual images in the media.
But I must say, it was in Waikiki, around 2003, in the main lobby in the Outrigger Waikiki Beach near the entrance of Duke’s, that war hit home on a personal and authentic level. Limping out of the hotel lobby with his wife was a young man with two prosthetic legs on crutches. I verified–he was an injured vet. There would be more sightings, more stories, more evidence that war is not glamorous or heroic. Just hang out at the Hale Koa bar once in a while.
Looking back, I am ashamed to admit I drank the Bush kool-aid in gallons. And I wasn’t alone. 911 was very traumatic and there was blood lust in the air.
So thank you Ian, for doing your part back then and today.
One final lesson learned. When I hear talking heads or politicos or friends on both sides of the political spectrum say “we” should (invade, drop bombs, attack, spy, etc.), I always like to ask “who is the ‘we’?”
In fact, the “we” in this country willing to die for their country is on the decline for good reason. The “we” in this country never served, is aging, enjoys the comforts of cable television and high speed internet, and is much better at sending people off to foreign wars then actually doing any fighting themselves. But they can sure talk about it.
Thanks Mr. Christensen
Why don’t we celebrate Peace Corps Day? I suspect that most people do not know that it is on March 1st each year; the day that President John F Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961.
Your promotion of a more peace-inclined nation is full of merit, but it would not sit well with the general population to diminish our yearly tribute to those who died before we became peaceful.
And we need more than a parade and lanterns. We need to resume the GI Bill and pick up war veterans’ college tabs. Establish a special home mortgage fund. I have always maintained that we who did not fight America’s wars and prospered owe a special “catch up” for those who lost their place in the line of economic progress.
I couldn’t agree more.
Your virtue has been duly signalled.
The US has indeed made some terrible mistakes. It has also done some tremendous good.
The fact remains: we live in a dangerous world populated by plenty of people who do not subscribe to your impeccable moral values. Utopian dreams, cloistered posturing, and naive, myopic, and racist denunciation of “old white men” won’t change that.
So let’s just remember and honor today all who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to this great nation.
I’m a war veteran, and our war holidays look to me like a chance to glorify our worst national mistakes.
Our worst human mistakes, I should have said.
I feel for the dead and their families. I don’t support the senseless overseas invasions of sovereign countries. We can do better! Grenada invasion. Panama invasion.Iraq invasion.Afghanistan invasion. Just a few of the unending tragedies in recent years. Now our leaders are drumming up an attack on Iran and threatening North Korea.
Absolutely nothing learned from the past. Expect more tragedies to come.
What’s more unbearable is when “chickenhawks” who have never served or known sacrifice, so easily send others off to die in the name of “national security” to fill some sort of perverse inadequacy or simple bloodlust for power.
I can’t think of a better gang of scum than the current POTUS, his jester at National “Security” Advisor, and the wanna be general (who even graduated West Point but couldn’t wait by paying his dues) serving as his chief “diplomat” in the State Department.
I’m only surprised Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz weren’t resurrected from the crypt!