Tag: Memorial Day

May 29, 2023 – Memorial Day 2023

May 29, 2023 /

My best description of today is honoring those that died in service of our country. We are not thanking veterans or first responders and we are not parroting “Freedom is not free”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

Imagine that we were farmers and we all plant the same crop. We have the same costs and we all work sun up to sun down all spring and summer. Yet when it comes harvest time, I harvest and sell my crop and you inexplicably abandon the field. As a result I prosper for that year and you starve and die.

We wouldn’t honor that person as a farming hero who died in the career of feeding the world. We would likely say he is a fool who died as a result of his lack of farming efforts. It is not what you do to get to the end point but what you do with it that is honorable.

It would be admirable if I ploughed your field, bought your seed, tended your crops and harvested your bounty. What if after all of that, I died in a farming accident and you then just leave the crop to waste? After that, you then turn around and say ‘I know that this is prime farming ground, this crop has an infinite return and is necessary for a happy and healthy life but instead of farming it, I am going to build a shopping mall here’.

Those actions are not honoring my farming and human efforts, they are doing the opposite. Sure, I defend your freedom of choice to do what you want when you want. We cannot in the same voice then claim that death in farming is a sacred result because it is dangerous, necessary and for the better good. Culture is result of practicing traditions, consistently with a common understanding.

The holiday is not to connect service death to platitudes. It actually to honor people that died rather senselessly. I would ask what is sadder: a person that died prematurely or died prematurely as a result of a higher cause? It is natural for us to invent significance to justify the occurrence. That is why we label it the ultimate sacrifice because it helps quell the doubt of the result.

The reported stance is that military service is required to defend the state and by proxy of the state existing we have the illusion of freedom. The implication is no state/no freedom. For instance, if communism succeeded in southern Asia, then it could advance here and we would loose our country as it were and therefore freedom.

End Your Programming Routine: Not only is that what Memorial Day has become but our actions don’t respect the freedom that we proport to be so thankful for. What are you doing with your freedom? Are you buying a permit for that summer building project or to hold a garage sale, are you complaining to the police about you neighbor’s party or are you scheming because your neighbor’s grass is too tall or house is painted in an unapproved color? To embrace the true ultimate sacrifice, we need need to embrace the true concept of freedom.

May 30, 2022 – Remember the Ultimate Sacrifice

May 30, 2022 /

Fortunately for me, I don’t know of anyone that has died in combat. I do know someone that took their own life as a result of PTSD which, while extremely sad is not quite the same (I will get to this later). If you remember my stance I took in 2020 this is not Veterans Day or First Responders appreciation. This is the day to remember those that gave all.

I will have the barbeque going and I will enjoy some family time as well as a day off. I will be thankful that I don’t know anyone that has died in combat. I will also be slightly pissed off that our soldiers died in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, UAE, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Bosnia, Serbia and Kuwait to name the ones that we know about. I will be sad that kids were brainwashed into believing in the mission so strongly that they didn’t realize they were the pawns and casualties in a power struggle beyond their wildest imagination. I will be boggled and disgusted by a culture that can’t tell the difference between a veteran and a combat death.

This is all to say that we need to be very careful in our moral superiority complex. We must not confuse advancing Liberty and Freedom with the actions of a bully. This is not a benevolent bully either. This is a bend to our submission so that we can remain at the top of the heap. Our dollar is worth more, our gas tanks are filled first, we eat first, we piss upstream of everyone else.

When I hear the phrase “fighting for your freedom” I want to throw up a little bit. In a small way, that is true. It is not freedom per se, but my ability to leverage my superior economic status over yours, or my manifest destiny, or protecting my business interests in a location that is not governed by my country. There have only been three occasions where this has truly been the case, the war of Independence, the war of 1812 and the Civil War.

I could be persuaded to give Korea and Vietnam a pass to a point. But one, we should now know that proxy wars are not protecting our freedom and two after we have seen those failures we keep doing the same thing (Afghanistan). Or, how about the ‘We fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here’ stance? Here’s an idea, if we stopped pushing people around all together maybe we wouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense constantly.

Remember the accusations that Russia would dare to mettle in our elections? How many elections do you suppose we have manipulated? How about the invasion of Haiti to restore a dictator that was disposed by a military coup? The same guy that was assassinated last year, how did that work out for him or us for that matter? There is nothing like a constant power display to build contempt so that they get to the point that they would rather blow themselves up than keep on keeping on.

I would like to think that my people are the god fearing, flag waving, not apologizing for shit, Toby Keith types. I used be one of those for sure. But, part of being god fearing is looking at the situation from a different points of view. At this point, I can’t endorse any sort of non-defensive military aggression.

I do not blame the soldier. In theory, they were used to advance agenda of economic superiority using propaganda masked as patriotism. This is the real tragedy of Memorial Day. To put a final point to this, the ultimate sacrifice was not self sacrifice exclusively but a willing sacrifice for someone else’s prosperity without the full knowledge of the situation. It is no small coincidence that combat veterans suffer from a high degree of PTSD. No only did they do things they regret, they intimately understand the whole cabal after it is too late.

End Your Programming Routine: My heart goes to you if you had a loved one die in the line of duty. About ten years ago, we met a husband and wife that were up in the woods. We were looking for a specific grove of old growth timber called ‘Valley of the Giants’ but they were up there because their son was killed in Vietnam and buried in a town called Valsetz that no longer exists. They were near the old townsite to get a connection on Memorial Day. Fortunately, they were more than willing to lead us to our destination which we would not likely found simply wandering in the woods.

May 22, 2020 – Heading toward a misunderstood holiday weekend

May 22, 2020 /

As an Eagle Scout, my patriotism runs deep. But as I often say, details matter and this is one of those things that is starting to annoy me more as I get older.

Memorial Day originally began as a symbol and remembrance of the horror of war. It was created as a holiday by President Ulysses Grant approximately at the end of the battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg is considered the turning point in the US Civil War. This is a day to remember those who died in battle, in service to their country, period.

Like many people, I don’t actually know anyone that has died in battle. I know people that were wounded and I know people that later succumbed to their demons. Most of them were kids who’s lives have not yet begun. So unless you are a parent, spouse, sibling or served in combat it is not likely you will have a strong connection to this holiday either.

In this age of ‘woke’ and relative morality, culturally we have lost touch with actual right and wrong. In lieu of potentially offending someone, we just accept wrongness and actively perpetuate it. Patriotic groups are actually the worst at propagating the improper image. I will explain.

My sons’ Boy Scout Troop places flags at one of the local graveyards during the week of Memorial Day. The selection criteria for a grave getting a flag is whether there is an indicator that the person served in the military on the headstone.

That level of discrimination has nothing to do with actual Memorial Day. For the most part, I can tell that most of them did not die in the line of duty by how long they lived. I have also seen flags placed on empty graves because I know one person who’s spouse died and has the headstone mostly complete, including USMC.

At my church last year, everyone that served in the military was recognized during Memorial Sunday. I heard a local country music station say thanks to all that served, including now first responders. We have gone off of the deep end on giving recognition that is way out of context to the meaning of the event.

Service for the most part is a choice, not an enlightenment. I am thankful that people make that choice. But I also believe in supply/demand economics. The kids that I know that have enlisted are doing so for education, VA home loans, paychecks, signing bonuses and twenty years retirement. That is a great reason to do so and I support that decision methodology.

But, lets no kid ourselves here. A signing bonus is a long way from the Marine landing at Omaha Beach or the Pacific islands. Watching actual footage of kids throwing up out of fear and cut to bodies bobbing in the surf has little to do with each other. War is a business where casualties are expected, it is a matter of which ones.

I am all for expressing gratitude, its is a trait that I am not very good at. I just want us to actually take to heart this weekend that ‘Some Gave All’, almost universally not by choice. Strategic and tactical decisions were made and the consequences were death. Let us not cheapen their sacrifice because we are ignorant or are worried that someone is going to be left out of recognition.