This Memorial Day has me thinking...
About my dad who is no longer with me, having died of cancer 10 years ago next month. He served in the US Navy for almost 23 years. When he left the service in 1975, he started life anew in the civilian world. It was not kind to him. The corporate world proved to be his undoing as he fought for survival as a man in his forties starting over again. He went to college, got his degree and then moved the family twice before settling down for the scraps that the work world had for a man in his late fifties.
Still, in the end, he survived to see his son get married to a firebrand. If only he could have been alive to see his granddaughter and grandson. That would have made his day. Especially MacKinnon, he would have loved. I bet he would see a lot of me in him, his love of cars and all things that go boom!
But another thing that has me thinking...
The need for a Memorial Day at all... it just leaves me sad to think of the lives that are gone forever, fighting for lands in the sand and on a map. Violence on a the state scale... has always been, probably will always be. But still, it saddens me to think of the futility of it all when you think that men and women and national treasure are squandered so often, so cavalierly to in the end a pointless exercise in oneupsmanship. Backers of nationalism always point out that national defense is no vice. It is patriotism at it's zenith. I beg to differ. True patriotism is defined not in us versus them but in "us." The leaders of countries that are against our national interests (whatever those may be, and I assure you, so often those interests run counter to the American ideal) are often at odds with their populace. We do ourselves no favors by waging war against countries that in every chance they could get would love to sit down with American citizens and have a dialogue. Our American Exceptionalism and brio are akin to putting one's foot in the mouth. They are cancer to the global community and when they are finally purged from our psyche, either by our decline or by defeat in battle, we will be better off.
The sight of remembrances on this Memorial Day is a double edged sword. On one hand, it is fitting to pay homage to those that have died in their service to the country. But on the other hand, we are commemorating the larger picture of the use of force to establish the American Way, to bring empire to the world and to be the City on the Hill. Only this Hill is but a slight rise on the garbage heap of the 20th and 21st century of mass killings, secret killings and indefinite detentions all in the name of our freedom.
Pardon me if I don't partake in it all. My father and I disagreed on this vehemently towards the latter part of his years. But he also understood where I came from, as did I. I wonder what he would think ultimately about all this modern day Memorial Day remembrances, in light of what we are doing as a nation globally.
I don't think he would approve. It is often said that only the non-veteran favors entering into conflict because those that have seen war firsthand do not enter it lightly nor again.
Miss you Dad.
