Memorial Day
First, an apology -- every time I go on vacation I have grand plans to get so much reading and writing done and invariably I fail to do both. This trip also turned into a bit more of a personal project than I anticipated, not that I haven’t been keeping up with what is going on but I’ve not been in the headspace to write about political matters. Don’t worry though, I’ll be back next week with my thoughts on the latest hair-brained idea from conservatives on how to regulate content on social media (hint hint).
I wanted to take a moment to commemorate Memorial Day; I don’t say happy Memorial Day because for far too many of you this is not a happy day at all. If you are mourning the loss of a loved one today, I send my condolences and deepest sympathies to you. If you are remembering a loved one who was lost in war, I hope their memory brings you comfort.
There will never be a final Memorial Day, for there will always be fallen soldiers to remember from all of the wars of the past. We can strive to stop adding to the ranks of soldiers who need to be remembered by winding down foreign involvements and bringing our troops home. For the first time in years, there is a glimmer of hope that we will be bringing all of our troops home from Afghanistan. I hope by Memorial Day 2022 that will be a reality -- our involvement in Afghanistan has gone on long enough.
Memorial Day should be a day not only for remembrance of those who lost their lives to war but a day for taking a hard look at the costs of war and reflecting on if that cost was worth whatever gains we made. In my lifetime that calculus has been grim; the costs in both blood and money have been astronomical and the gains paltry at best.
There has to be a better way, a way that doesn’t cost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. If there is anyone left in the federal government who truly gives a damn about the meaning of Memorial Day, I hope they spend some time today thinking about how to reduce the number of lives we will have to remember on future Memorial Days.