(Two very differently toned Memorial Day user diaries from readers who have served. This is the second, originally posted elsewhere. I’m promoting both to encourage discussion, or at least thoughtfulness. It’s worth remembering that, although politicians like to speak of veterans as a monolithic group (that support their particular agenda, of course), they are anything but. I encourage readers to check out both diaries before commenting. – promoted by odum)
So it’s Memorial Day, which means that the US is awash with mostly obligatory tributes to military personnel.
I hate this shit.
I didn’t fight for your freedoms. In the six years I was in, I never once defended your right to vote, or to carry a gun, or to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure (that one doesn’t really apply anymore, anyway), or any of the other things you enjoy as a citizen of this country. I just didn’t. Neither did anyone who went to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Vietnam. It’s all bullshit. It’s a fucking lie that we tell ourselves and each other so that we don’t have to think about why we send young men and women to serve, suffer, and die for old men’s vainglorious ideas and profit margins.
I passed through Burlington, WI on Saturday to visit their annual chocolate festival. Who could say no to that, right? Well, while there (this being Wisconsin), I got myself a beer. To do so, you had to put up with the shitty metal cover band in the beer tent. There’s a 45-year-old lead singer acting a fool–pouring beer on his own goddamned head, making dumb-ass sexist remarks, saying stupid shit about his teen-aged daughter, etc. Since that wasn’t reprehensible enough, he then proceeded to thank all the veterans in the crowd, specifically pointing out one man whose–well, I’ll just quote this asshole.
I wanna thank all of our veterans for what they do for us. Every guy in the band, our fathers were all in the military. My dad was in Korea! This guy right here in front–his son is in Iraq right now. He’s over there FIGHTIN’ FOR OUR RIGHT TO PARTY!
I wanted to rush the stage and strangle that fuck with a microphone cord.
Read the rest of this post at First Draft.
Says it all, doesn’t it?
Memorial Day has lost its meaning since Vietnam (a BAD war). It has become bullshit more so now since Americans have become content and comfortable with Capitalist Warfare–invading or bombing any country whose people do not embrace “CORPORATE DEMOCRACY.” We bomb and kill, invade and kill, in the name of democracy, but it’s really about money and Corporate Power (feudalism). And worse, while we don’t care about the death toll of other peoples, it seems like we don’t even care anymore about the death toll of our sons and daughters sent to Iraq, Afghanistan, etc because War has become GOOD BUSINESS. And these are our states’ National Guards, since we don’t have a draft anymore–our neighbors, the ones who have helped us through uncounted domestic disasters (Natural, and Unnatural–integration of southern schools).
Yes–The Three Day Party. Shit. Real Memorial Day used to be celebrated on May 30. (How many of us even remember that?) But that didn’t allow for a consistent three day weekend fest to celebrate the beginning of Summer. Hell, might as well turn it into “Pagan Fest Memorial Weekend.”
I recommend a good movie from 1946 which had a lot to say about what Americans fought for in WWII and what America used to stand for: The Best Years Of Our Lives. A movie that later made it onto McCarthy’ shit list in the fifties. That movie ought to run every Memorial Day. Every Veterans Day. Every 4th of July. And every goddamn fucking Election Season.
They are all bad wars.
I’d like to thank Mr. Odum for inviting me to post here.
I hope you all read the whole article (linked at the end of the above post). Thanks for reading, and I appreciate your feedback.
You Green Mountain Boys & Gals keep on kicking ass and showing the rest of the country how it’s done.
–Jude
there’s some refreshing freaking sanity lurking in this.
There is a true statement in the lead-in to this that needs to be repeated; those who serve in the military are not a monolithic block. They are not clones, their beliefs and motivations are not identical and neither are their experiences. The military is made up of citizens and individuals who, just like every other people organization, represent a wide variety of views. The writer of this essay is an example of exactly one.
The writer seems to make the assumption that no one in the military ever thought about right and wrong or justified and unjustified violence until his fortunate arrival on the scene. In my experience that is so completely wrong as to be deliberately self serving denial. Popular myths aside, today’s military neither encourages nor rewards unthinking obedience. Instead, individuals are encouraged to be thoughtful and decisive as smaller and smaller units are pushed out alone further and further into unknown or unpredictable territory. It’s been my experience that those same individuals speak of war, violence, and loss from a viewpoint of personal exposure and have generally put very thoughtful consideration into issues of motivation and justification. Given the same facts as the writer many of those individuals arrive at completely different conclusions and continue to serve despite the risk and sacrifice required. I’m not advocating pure empiricism, merely saying that to arbitrarily discount other viewpoints because they don’t fit with what you want to be true is a childish approach to important issues.
the lead singer – good ol’ fashioned Ted Nugent-style patriotism, crusty underwear and all.
Gawd bless Duhmerica!
It is incredibly sad and shows how sick a society America really has become that the only future we create for our young folks below certain income levels is to fight and die for Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, no-bid contracts, and America’s endless need to seem masculine, tough. Great piece here. I know a lot vets that feel similar to the author, especially the vietnam vets, who got royally screwed. But this is what this country really is. At least Vermont is moving away from that and trying to show the rest of the country what democracy is.