Ignorant Spectator on Memorial Day
Memorial Day was commemorated originally to honor Civil War soldiers who died for their beliefs. Later it was expanded to honor all those who died in service of their country. Now it is just another federal holiday that provides a three day weekend that mostly exalts consumer spending, drunkenness and BBQs.
Personal belief and service of country. Are they the same or different? In some cases they are the same, but not always. Some take up arms for their beliefs, some to defend their people, some due to conscription, some out of peer pressure, some out of sense of duty to country, others for money, adventure or fame. All soldiers are not the same, the only common element is a willingness to die by taking up arms for a cause.
Government tries to hijack the holiday to display solidarity of the entire population under their flag. I've always been troubled by this ploy. The holiday belongs to those who died for their individual beliefs, not elites who use the government for personal gain and power. The dead do not belong to the state.
The flag has lost all meaning to me recently. It's meaning is gone. There was a time when it stood for the rights and freedoms of individual citizens who lived under the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Now it stands for the power of an elite global dictatorship that gropes, breaks into homes, kills those who resist, confiscates personal property and tells everyone what to do in infinite detail. Exactly who is a citizen in this country anymore? What is a citizen? The US flag seems a museum piece representing a people with rights under God that were, but now are gone.
My beliefs do not coincide nor embrace a country the shoots an unarmed, captured combatant in the head. I think most soldiers through the ages would agree. It is dishonorable. I'd like to believe that the Memorial Day dead would agree with me. Yes Osama's actions were despicable. But so were Obama's orders. It diminished this country, it's flag, it's warriors and it's people. How a civilization treats it's weakest, such as an unarmed, captured combatant, defines that civilization.
I would expect Mongols, Mayans, Comanches, Imperial Japs, Nazis and Al Qaeda to slaughter captives and celebrate. Not Americans. Navy SEALS were obligated to follow orders. But following those orders dishonored them and this country. It saddens me.
So I will remember and honor those who died in combat for their individual beliefs this Memorial Day irregardless of their cause or nation. No flag is necessary and may even insult. Confederate or Yankee, American or other, all who died in combat for a belief deserve remembrance. Only God can know and judge their beliefs. I am but an ignorant spectator in His Passion Play.
Innocent until proven guilty. Rest in peace citizen, Marine, husband and father.
Personal belief and service of country. Are they the same or different? In some cases they are the same, but not always. Some take up arms for their beliefs, some to defend their people, some due to conscription, some out of peer pressure, some out of sense of duty to country, others for money, adventure or fame. All soldiers are not the same, the only common element is a willingness to die by taking up arms for a cause.
Government tries to hijack the holiday to display solidarity of the entire population under their flag. I've always been troubled by this ploy. The holiday belongs to those who died for their individual beliefs, not elites who use the government for personal gain and power. The dead do not belong to the state.
The flag has lost all meaning to me recently. It's meaning is gone. There was a time when it stood for the rights and freedoms of individual citizens who lived under the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Now it stands for the power of an elite global dictatorship that gropes, breaks into homes, kills those who resist, confiscates personal property and tells everyone what to do in infinite detail. Exactly who is a citizen in this country anymore? What is a citizen? The US flag seems a museum piece representing a people with rights under God that were, but now are gone.
My beliefs do not coincide nor embrace a country the shoots an unarmed, captured combatant in the head. I think most soldiers through the ages would agree. It is dishonorable. I'd like to believe that the Memorial Day dead would agree with me. Yes Osama's actions were despicable. But so were Obama's orders. It diminished this country, it's flag, it's warriors and it's people. How a civilization treats it's weakest, such as an unarmed, captured combatant, defines that civilization.
I would expect Mongols, Mayans, Comanches, Imperial Japs, Nazis and Al Qaeda to slaughter captives and celebrate. Not Americans. Navy SEALS were obligated to follow orders. But following those orders dishonored them and this country. It saddens me.
So I will remember and honor those who died in combat for their individual beliefs this Memorial Day irregardless of their cause or nation. No flag is necessary and may even insult. Confederate or Yankee, American or other, all who died in combat for a belief deserve remembrance. Only God can know and judge their beliefs. I am but an ignorant spectator in His Passion Play.
Innocent until proven guilty. Rest in peace citizen, Marine, husband and father.
posted by lugh lampfhota at 10:28 AM
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