Memorial Day

Perhaps I’m not looking at it correctly, but it’s occurred to me on more than one occasion that the displaying of the American flag on Memorial Day is a little obscene. 

Easy, fella, let me explain…

You see, in a substantial portion of the men we are “memorializing” on this day – ie, the men who fought and died in this Country’s armed forces – it were representatives of that flag that came to said memorialized individual and told him something along the lines of “go fight this war, or we’ll throw you in prison.” 

In the American Civil War, the line was often much more harsh.  Something more like “go and fight this war, or we’ll hang you where you stand.” 

Celebrating THAT sacrifice by flying the flag of the very people that sent the poor man, against his will, to fight in bloody conflict, just seems kind of wrong to me. 

There should be some other symbol.  Similar to the “yellow ribbon” that we put up to show support and solidarity with our deployed troops, there should be some other symbol for Memorial Day than the display of the flag of the nation that forced these men to die.  It almost feels like rubbing it in the faces of the poor draftees that fought valiantly and bravely, and died terribly, because they were MADE TO by threat of being thrown in a cage, shunned socially, and made unemployable forever, if they did not. 

This isn’t an attempt to discuss the justness of this war or that.  World War Two is possibly the most just of wars ever fought by America, and yet I feel the same way about the draftees in that war as I do any other.  The sacrifice of the draftee is the most painful, in my opinion, because they didn’t choose it.  It was forced on them, and for the most part, they did the best they could with what they were faced with.  

Regardless of how you feel about everything else I just posted, take a moment to give thanks to all the men who've shed blood in defense of this country.