Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Wars Create Memories

Today is Memorial Day here in the US, a federal holiday for remembering and honoring persons who have died while serving in the Armed Forces. How do you honor those who have passed (whether they served in the military or not)?

Quote:" Where liberty dwells there is my country" by Benjamin Franklin from A Treasury of Great American Quotations

Today is Memorial Day here in the US, a federal holiday for remembering and honoring persons who have died while serving in the Armed Forces. How do you honor those who have passed (whether they served in the military or not)?

Memorial Day Concert

In the last few years we have watched the Memorial Day Concert in Washington D.C. This year it was 1 1/2 hours long. It honors soldiers and the players sing songs that are spiritual or meaningful to patriotism. Some of the actors tell personal stories of soldier's war activities. Usually they are honoring a specific soldier who is sitting in the audience. The stories are horrendously specific about how a soldier was injured and survived. This year they also honored a wife, whose husband was burned in a bombing of the Humvee, which he was riding in. He died in-spite of many surgeries in a Texas hospital.

You really cannot watch this show I don't think, without remembering family members or acquaintances who have died. The show itself is a very somber affair. Before it was finished this year, I felt it was very depressing to watch To me, I felt it was pushing an agenda that would be better served in some other way. Truly, I don't know what other way would work to serve this particular holiday. Larger cities do have parades.

This year they used the show as an outreach to members of the military who have not received the help they need. A real concern is military people who served, but are now out of the service and not doing well in life, because of their military years. Many of these people are committing suicide and so the outreach to them was pointed.

I always wonder what the deceased would tell us about this holiday? Would they prefer not to enter wars?