Does anyone now think about the significance of Memorial Day? Or is it just a day off or the unofficial start of summer?
I was fortunate to have missed the Vietnam fiasco in spite of 7 years in the Army but 53,000 of my brothers died for the political idiocy of that time.
It continues now with each new opportunity to send good people to die in places where we don’t belong.
My heart breaks for the families of those that have been lost and wounded.
They were brave, patriotic people sent to die by fools whose only service to the country is to line their pockets and boost their egos.
I salute those in the military who still serve and wish them well.
Amen. I view memorial day as a time to remember all the sacrifices and damage inflicted on those who have served in the military. Most of my generation had fathers (and many mothers) who, though they survived World War II and Korea, were permanently changed and often scarred by those experiences.
My own dad died far too young (57) of liver cancer that was probably directly related to the hepatitis he contracted in the Pacific Theater in 1945 – he signed up the day he turned 18 in January of 1942 and spent 3 years in Europe with the Engineer Corps – his letters home (which we still have) reveal how the experiences, including liberating Buchenwald, deeply affected and changed him. And he lost his beloved elder brother, a pilot, in a plane crash during the war. I “saved” Dad from being sent to Korea (he was still in the reserves) by being born the day before that conflict began – there was a waiver for reserves with children in 1950. Even survivors left parts of themselves on those fields of carnage (that most generals and politicians never really experience first hand.)
And my own early Baby Boomer generation was negatively affected and divided at the point of our transition to adulthood by the social upheavals caused by the senseless and politicized Viet Nam “war” – all my male classmates in high school had to register for the draft and be in the lottery for call up. Many were drafted and died and many more changed their life paths involuntarily due to that Damocles sword hanging over them. My first boyfriend’s entire family left for Canada to keep him from being drafted and another friend, who wanted to be a biomedical clinical researcher (and was much better suited for such solitary work) regretfully switched to medical school to avoid being forced into military service. when his birthday came up in the top 5 of the lottery. Selective Service even contacted me (female) as to why I had not enrolled for the draft when one of the times I took the SATs someone accidentally keyed my gender as “male” on the registration log. They were THAT rigorous in collecting cannon fodder.
Memorial Day should be when we not only pay homage to those who have died or had their lives damaged by war. We should also take the time to reflect deeply on what we might individually and collectively do to eliminate or at least mitigate the unfortunate human impulse to dominate and destroy each other.
Amen! My father spent WW 2 in the Pacific and my Mom worked in a defense plant.
She died of cancer at 74 , we suspect from being exposed to radiation at work.
Yes it is a very important day for what it means. I think of all the sacrifices made by service people living, past on, killed in action, and the families who sacrifice when they leave. God Bless.
It is the outgrowth of Decoration Day. The day remembering those that died in action. It has been around since Civil War time… It was the day to decorate the graves of the dead.
My father was WW-II, Korea and Vietnam.
I was Vietnam, Nicaragua and Desert Storm.
During the first, I was spat on. During the second no one knew it happened, during the third my wife moved some guy from prison into our house.
Then a few years ago during my annual Memorial Day Paddle (5 of my USAF buddies died the previous week) , some guy had his kid come up to me and tell me “thank you”. I still do not know how to react to that.
@RikJohnson said: some guy had his kid come up to me and tell me “thank you”. I still do not know how to react to that.
Me neither.
@RikJohnson said:
My father was WW-II, Korea and Vietnam.
I was Vietnam, Nicaragua and Desert Storm.
During the first, I was spat on. During the second no one knew it happened, during the third my wife moved some guy from prison into our house.
Then a few years ago during my annual Memorial Day Paddle (5 of my USAF buddies died the previous week) , some guy had his kid come up to me and tell me “thank you”. I still do not know how to react to that.
Thanks for the long history of service and sacrifice from your family.