Honoring The Fallen, and the Future

THERE ARE TWO THINGS you definitely do not want to do on Memorial Day. You do not want to walk up to a member of the U.S. armed forces and thank her or him for her or his service. Not good, as our Prez would bleat. Memorial Day is to honor the dead, the fallen heroes who fell in combat, not current service members. Thanking the alive and well can be done every other day of the year, including Veteran's Day, because, after all, the currently serving shall soon enough be veterans, or "Armed Services DY", whatever and whenever that is, assuming it exists, and I'm not merely dreaming that it does. The other thing is, you don't want to fail to condemn war, and human violence in general, and vow to spend the remainder of your life working diligently to end both, for they have no real value, they only serves to diminish our species, we can do better, and think how many beautiful people could have lived much longer lives if not for the human insanity of war. Over one hundred million good people died in military combat during the twentieth century alone. Incredible. memorial Day started right after the Civil War as "Decoration Day", to honor the recent nightmarishly high deaths, to honor the fallen soldiers. We honor our fallen heroes, but we do not overlook the fact that, quite simply, there is no reason in heaven or hell, no law of nature, nothing about who we humans are which requires that we kill each other. We can and must eliminate war from our world, and what better day to at least realized that fact, and to direct our aspirations and highest selves toward that noble end, while we simultaneously honor, remember, and cherish those who fought for our nation in the past. While we honor the dead, let us honor our descendants by leaving them a world free of the monstrous, savage violence with which we have thus far, needlessly and unwisely, filled history. May the dear lord be with us.