Memorial Day

As I sit here this Memorial Day, I am trying to recall the purpose of the holiday - to remember men and women who have perished while in military service to their country. I do this because going into the holiday I did not give it a second thought. This is one of those holidays where inevitably someone has to remind us of the real meaning of the holiday and why it is important. Like most Americans, I was thinking about what we were going to do for the weekend, barbecues, shopping bargains, family and friends and of course, going to the beach if it is warm enough. The joys of this weekend, the unofficial start of summer, have eclipsed the meaning of the day. If any Memorial Day commemorations happen to cross our paths, they generally emphasize the memory of wars past.

But, we do have a war going on right now. Unfortunately, the Iraq War has been mismanaged and the news coverage manipulated, the war never took its rightful place as being foremost in the public consciousness. Unlike Vietnam and the world wars, the administration did us a disservice by limiting our access to the realities of war. We could not make a real connection to the war. We could not witness our fallen soldiers returning to a hero’s burial. The horrors of this war have been limited to the military and military families. And while these new casualties of war become those to be remembered on memorial day, most of us will push on happily shopping and barbecuing with nary a second thought.