Today, Memorial Day is all about picnics and barbeques but at one time it was about memorializing those Americans who fought and died in service to our country. What does that mean?
When I was younger, I used to carry a copy of the US Constitution with me in my back packet. It’s true, I was really that patriotic. But over the years, I have come to see that America hasn’t lived up to the ideals that I thought it did. We haven’t fought a just war since WWII and our military today does double tap drone strikes of innocent people with no regard for human life.
So what should we make of Memorial Day? Well, I think it is important to honor our fallen heroes, but I don’t think every fallen soldier is a fallen hero. I think we need to be more discriminating in who we honor.
The world we live in is more nuanced and we need to be more nuanced in who we call heroes. It has been my experience that many soldiers today are nothing more than thugs pointed in the right direction (and sometimes not even that). Don’t get me wrong, there are also really honorable people who serve in today’s military but I think they are vastly outnumbered.
But I do love a good barbeque, so any excuse to have a good time with friends and family is okay with me. But we should realize that our military rarely defends Americans anymore and that more often than not, they are just the unwitting muscle of corporate industry to secure resources and/or crush competition.
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- ‘What Is Wrong With The World?’ (skepticink.com)
