Memorial Day Reflections

Millennials forget the sacrifice of generations past in their rush to debate strangers online about the policy of war. They discuss the propriety of politics while ignoring hurting humanity.

The fact is, yes, America has erred, and erred badly, in many of its decisions to interfere or refrain from interfering in international warfare.

However, this does not change reality, which is that thousands of U.S. soldiers have died. It’s easy to discuss death in the abstract, reducing it to political statistics, but reality is not made up of numbers. Real families are missing real husbands, fathers, friends, and sons. There are real graves filled with real bodies. We do not live in the land of the free without a cost.

Those who see war policy in terms of its failure denigrate the service and bravery of those who fight in those wars. American international policy is indeed broken and flawed, but then, what is not in this world?

Dismissing wars because of the idiocy of the orders of those who sit behind desks is disheartening and crushing to those who obeyed the orders. Do we blame the leader in The Charge of the Light Brigade? Or do we applaud him and his men for their bravery?

We are becoming dangerously close to imitating the generation who could not even welcome home with pride the veterans of the Vietnam War. And with veteran suicide rates regularly higher than the rest of the population, rampant PTSD, and the failure to adequately care for veterans, there is no time for the average citizen to waste speculating on what the Pentagon should do. Instead, perhaps they should befriend a veteran and check in on them. If you really want to change the world, start with yourself. Turn your computer off.

Let me summarize: Stop politicizing everything and be humane.