On this past Memorial Day, several commentators wondered if the meaning had gone out of the holiday. My understanding of Memorial Day is that it is meant to commemorate and honor those who fought and died for democracy, freedom and the American way of life.
As a Vietnam veteran, I personally do not want to be honored, and I don’t observe the day. There is no doubt in my mind that the Vietnam War was wrong. We went halfway around the world and killed more than 2 million people, mostly peasants, ostensibly to protect our freedom. That’s quite a stretch of the imagination. In fact, elections were scheduled for 1956 in Vietnam. We stopped them because we did not like the person who was going to win. We hardly were fighting for democracy. We were fighting to stop democracy.
Since 1945, we have fought to stop democratic and popular movements in China, Italy, Greece, Philippines, South Korea, Albania, East Germany, Iran (where we helped overthrow Mossadegh, the Iranian equivalent of George Washington, and replaced him with the Shah), Guatemala (our CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the popular, democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz), Indonesia, Cambodia (where the U.S. helped overthrow popular Prince Sihanouk, leaving a weak government that was overthrown by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge). Similar scenarios were played out in the Congo, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Chile and dozens of other nations.
In May of 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen gunned down 13 students at Kent State University, killing four of them. Some were exercising their 1st Amendment rights. Some were just walking to and from classes. No Guardsman was ever convicted for these senseless crimes.
Since Kent State, I have made a list each year of what I am proud of about the United States. Then I make a list of what I am ashamed of. The shame list always has been longer.
We are quite different from what we claim to be. We shamelessly allow our corporations to exploit children around the world in barbaric sweatshops. We remain silent or applaud while our leaders allow 20 percent of our children to fall into poverty. Fidel Castro cares far more about the children of Cuba than our leaders care about our children. Elian Gonzalez would be far better off there. Our businesses plunder Third World nations. They toss us a few scraps of the loot and we look the other way.
We allow guns to fall into the hands of immature, irresponsible people. Those guns kill more Americans in two years than the Vietnamese killed in 10 years. That’s insanity. Every other Western nation has a gun murder rate that is a fraction of what ours is. We are a people in denial. It’s a very convenient human trait. Germans undoubtedly found comfort in denial while Hitler was invading their neighbors and committing atrocities against ethnic groups.
Memorial Day needs to be devoted to introspection of our values and morals. We need to examine whether or not our leaders are serving the interests of the American people and the other people of the world, or those of a few unprincipled, wealthy and powerful individuals.
