Memorial Day 2010

On this Memorial Day I remember those who have died fighting for the right of their government to kill people.

… and I am profoundly sad. It is always the disenfranchised who pay with life and limb and seldom the power elite. Our leaders make speeches proclaiming our valor in defending their interests, their liberty, their hallowed ground, all the while whipping us into a frenzy of fear and hatred of “the other.” That other, so much like us, wanting mainly to live and love, raise a family in peace and provide it sustenance, and maybe even to dream, dance and worship. Instead, we are set upon one another in mindless stampedes of violence and then laid to rest with wreaths.

Such is my meditation on Memorial Day.