Memorial Day, 2008

Memorial Day is the day we Americans are asked to remember. We are asked remember something specific -- the men and women who gave their lives defending our freedom. The holiday was originally instituted for the Civil War fallen and has continued since. I did a little research on it. One account insists that freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, instituted the event, recognizing the fallen Union soldiers who died to free them. These were buried in a mass grave. The freed slaves disinterred them and put them in individual graves, marking them with stones and flowers. In my research, I also found a site of Americans so hateful and bigoted that they could not accept this story without lashing out at the possibility that it was black people who did it. The amazing thing about America, to me, is that we enjoy the freedom we do because people have given their lives to ensure it ... and that freedom includes the freedom to express the cruel, evil racist statements at that site.

The sentiment of most Americans seems to be "No War." The feeling seems to be that there is no such thing as a good reason to go to fight. No cost is too little. The call is to bring them home from Iraq without any concern for the consequences because there is no good reason to fight. Google makes special web pages to recognize special days, so there was a special page for Thanksgiving and a special page for Christmas. There was even a special day recently for the birthday of an architect. But Google will not recognize Memorial Day. And, I fear, the majority applauds.

I am not in the majority. I thank God for the country in which I live. I thank God for the men and women who have given their lives to defend this country. I appreciate the words of John Stuart Mill:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

I'm proud to be an American, and grateful for the many who have looked beyond the personal cost to keep this country free.