Every Memorial Day I am reminded that people really do not seem to know what this day is for. Either that, or they know exactly what it is for and have chosen to observe it as if it were an old Irish wake… I don’t really know.
I do know that our Memorial Day is a day that is set aside to honor those in our Military who have passed away. Those who gave their lives on foreign soil, never seeing homes or loved ones ever again. Those who sit in wheelchairs, reading and reliving their last stories by a fading light.
There is more to it this year. Not only have we lost countless Veterans and military members to a virus, but the promise of war sits on a bloody horizon.
We should remember what war is all about on this day. We should remember that a Nuclear Missile is not the answer. Is never the answer unless there is an alien attack or something…
We should remember the billions lost to wars since mankind first picked up a club and beat his neighbor.
While a virus rages through humanity, we are faced with a virus of a different sort as well. That age old, creeping through the cracks and shadows sort of virus. It is one that takes the divisions that are already there, seeps into them, and spreads them wide open like a break in the Earth. Like an Earthquake that will really fuck up mankind as we know it.
Those who hate for miniscule reasons will find a bigger, more widely supported reason now.
This Memorial Day I beg this nation to visualize a pitiful, terrified and exhausted healthcare worker… sitting on the curb, tugging on a sweaty and dirty mask… One nasty gloved hand cradles their head as they try to stay awake. As they try not to lay down right there on the ground and go to sleep.
Picture those families who live on Military bases, unable to talk, unable to know for real what is going on. Their trust reliant on information that may or may not be true but they have to believe it.
Because that is what this day is about. Each and every American is their own person. Our government is hired by us, we man our Military. When we must take matters into our own hands by standing up, or sitting down, it is what we will do eventually. It is what we are made of. It’s what they feed us. What we know. We are free. Free to stay home, free to live in a tent if we have to, free to go on the run, etc and so on…
Many have already died this year. Civilian and Military alike. Veteran and Office Worker… It is a somber day, one of reverence. One of those special days when we light a candle for the dead. Our world is being shaken to its core and is important that certain cracks do not become great chasms in the very near future…
