Monday, May 28, 2012

On Memorial Day - Origins and Issues

Too often we don't appreciate a Holiday well enough because we don't know enough about it.  I wrote earlier this weekend, providing an overview of the official foundations of this day of recognition for the patriotic sacrifice of our troops, past and present.  The photo below was taken at the national cemetery at Ft. Snelling, where my own family members who served in the U.S. armed forces are buried.

Here is a bit more information on those origins.  It is particularly worth noting these origins in the continuing inequalities of our black American citizens.  We incarcerate more blacks than individuals from other groups; the states which still hold the death penalty AND execute the most people were traditionally the states which also had the most lynchings of blacks; and we still incarcerate - and kill - a too-large number of innocent people.  Let that be the context, the backdrop for the clips below.  Let me add that a certain right wing harpy (with a name which sounds exactly like Ann Coulter) who will do anything, no matter how unethical, how factually inaccurate, to get attention tried to portray Chris Hayes this weekend as not being sufficiently supportive or respectful of the sacrifice of our troops.  In point of fact he had some of the best pieces on both the historic origins of this day, and demonstrating respect for the sacrifices of our troops that I have seen anywhere.:




I would like our readers to join me in recognizing and honoring the deaths of so many of our military men and women who have died as a result of their service as a result of the emotional destruction that is not as well appreciated because it is not visible on the surface the way other injuries are visible. These are very much war related deaths which would be far less likely to have occurred if we were not at war. As such, they deserve to be honored and acknowledged more than they are in practice.  


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3 comments:

  1. Minnesota CentralMay 28, 2012 at 5:30 PM

    As we recognize that nearly 7,000 American servicemen and women having lost their lives in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the words of First District Congressman Tim Walz discussing the Red Bull paid leave program seem appropriate :

    As a Nation, these are our best and brightest. These are our future leaders. We want them getting readjusted. We want them back into the job market.
    We hear a lot about a 99 and a 1 percent. There is a 99 and a 1 percent in this country--1 percent who are serving in uniform and have served overseas, 99 percent of us who have benefited from that sacrifice.

    If there is an issue that binds this Nation together, it's the absolute unwavering support of those who are willing to lay down their lives and sacrifice time with their families to serve each and every one of us.

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  2. dog goneMay 28, 2012 at 5:58 PM

    Wow! That was great! It is true that only the 1% have served. I saw a news segment today on the return of a serviceman who was coming back home after his sixth deployment. SIXTH!

    How fair is that, some people serve NONE and others serve six tours?

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  3. dog goneMay 28, 2012 at 6:02 PM

    I blame part of this on the outsourcing of support jobs to contractors, instead of the jobs being done by the military. We had a larger military then, and when our country went to war, more people went to war, and there was more support for all those people, or we got out of the conflicts.

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