Memorial Day Nonsense

It is Memorial Day, and the nonsense is all over the television. According to the cultural tradition, all soldiers should be honored as they all somehow protect our freedom. Interestingly, though, as I approach almost fifty years of age, I cannot think of a war in my lifetime that protected my freedom or sought to preserve my rights. Vietnam was lost and we lost no freedom, but did lose the lives of 50,000 men and women. Iraq was never a threat to us. Afghanistan was not the enemy, but their temporary home, yet has become the longest war in our history.

Meanwhile, war is an excuse for violating rights - not protecting them. Thus even in a war that seems as necessary as World War Two we have the obscenity of concentration camps based on race in our country (those of Japanese ancestry that were robbed of their homes and businesses and interned for years). We currently have a supposedly "liberal" president who in the name of the "war" on terror (how do you make war on a technique?) has made it clear that even if some of the men who have been held for years without a trial ever get their day in court and are found not guilty, still reserves the "right" to hold them forever.

The soldiers? Certainly some of them idealistically join thinking they are defending freedom. Others join for all sorts of reasons. But I am not asking them to protect me, and so if they happen to do so it is for their own purposes. Nor am I asking anyone to set aside a day to honor those who speak their minds like myself, even though I consider this to be of more use than the killing done in the name of our country in recent years. We act for our own reasons, and owe nothing for that which we did not ask for (though gratefulness is natural when good is truly done on our behalf).

Furthermore, though their are undoubtedly many fine young men and women in the armed services who are honorable and courageous, the same can be said of those in many other fields. Landlords or flower merchants, for example, provide a greater public service than the military actions of recent years but we do not have a day set aside for honoring them. And though some soldiers are good, some are not doing good things - the same as with all humans in general. Why would I "honor" a man who participates in a war that I think is wrong? Because he thinks what he is doing is right? Because he somehow serves us by obeying orders unthinkingly? With criteria like that the worst Nazis should be honored by Germans.

Why am I picking on Memorial Day? Wouldn't it be better to leave the issue alone and let the families and others honor those they have lost? Well, they can - nobody is forced to read this. But no, it is not better to remain silent.

In honoring any group of people or any actions without meaningful moral criteria we encourage more mindless death and destruction. Honorable actions should be honored, but dishonorable actions should be pointed out as such. It is dishonest (to say the least) to honor all of a certain group when we know damn well that only some of them deserve it. It is a means to maintain the illusion that honor can come automatically with a uniform and obedience - very useful for the powers that be. It is also nonsense.