Memorial Day

Another Memorial Day has come and gone and I must comment on an oft-used phrase during this annual event. That phrase is some derivation of “They died for our freedom.” I cringe every time I hear this as I have trouble reconciling the invasion of another country with defending my freedom. I am not a student of history so I will say right now that I do not know the exact details of any decisions that have led to our country sending members of the Department of Defense into an offensive mode. But I still cannot understand what any American’s freedom has to do with invading Iraq, or liberating Kuwait, or whatever we were doing in Vietnam, Granada, etc. I would like someone out there to enlighten me on where the freedom of the US was threatened by any conflict that we chose to enter since the Spanish-American war.

Last night Andy Rooney pretty much summed up my feelings on the subject of Memorial day when he said:

“Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives.

That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.”

I would be first in line at the events honoring those who were responsible for taking war out of our lives.