When Will We Ever Learn?
Memorial Day came and left with my annual internal conflict about the valorization of military service.
Although I was drafted in September 1966, my first death shock came 6 months later. My gentle, good-spirited high school friend and swim team mate, Fred West, had surprisingly joined the Marines and was found in a pile of mutilated bodies during a rescue mission in Vietnam. Fred was 19 years old.
Neither his enlistment nor his death made America safer.
Memorial Day is intended to honor the more than 1,000,000 men and women who died while serving their country.
I mean no dishonor to Fred, other friends who died in Vietnam, or any who died in the line of duty. But Memorial Day is rife with meaningless expressions of gratitude and patriotism. I don’t doubt the bravery or patriotism of the individuals, but the day also represents an inadequately examined and recurrent national delusion.
Particularly during the Vietnam war, our voluntary and involuntary soldiers were sent on a fool’s errand disguised as a noble mission. The domino theory used to justify our presence was largely discredited long before social and political pressure forced our withdrawal.
58,000 Americans and millions of Asians died in the gruesome process. As with my friend Fred, each of those deaths left a trail of profound grief. No death, on either side, kept anyone safer.
I have similar reservations about the spasms of anger after 9/11. That attack was vicious and without provocation, but it led to irrational Islamophobia, government dishonesty and a pointless war. Weapons of mass destruction were conjured out of thin air to justify attacks on Iraq that included war crimes, like the use of Agent Orange on soldiers and citizens.
Retribution is a futile action, stirring more of the ant-American animus that inspired the radical psychopaths who flew planes into buildings. In this instance as well, no death on either side made anyone safer.
All of our various “excursions” into that always simmering region have been unproductive or counterproductive. Only delusion could yield a sense that we - or anyone else - are safer as result.
Now, under the incomprehensible incompetence of Team Trump, the contemporary version of “weapons of mass destruction” is an equally contrived “imminent nuclear threat.” So Trump threatens to end a civilization. This obscenity is only the slightly more egregious among a litany of war crimes offered up in the Trump/Hegseth vernacular.
The reason I offer this dismal resume of American immorality and corruption alongside the somber honors of Memorial Day is because our calls to military service are fundamentally dishonest.
Young women and men are invited to join to keep America safe. Ever since the unambiguous peril posed by Hitler and allies, the threats have been manufactured or greatly exaggerated.
The other motivating language is that the military is protecting American principles and values. Those principles and values desperately need protection, but not from the Viet Cong, Iraqis or Iranians. If today’s young women and men want to protect our principles and values, there is work aplenty to do at home.
They can mount a full-scale attack on their elected representatives, insisting that they remove Trump from office before there are no principles or values left to protect.
They can organize a battalion of like-minded patriots and knock on millions of doors, encouraging every citizen to vote out the scoundrels who are violating our principles and defacing our values every day.
They can uphold or restore the principles of equality, liberty and justice by advocating for voting rights, free speech and the dignity of all fellow humans.
They can work to make America safer by fighting against climate change and its devastating consequences.
When people learn that I was an Army officer, they frequently say, “Thank you for your service.” I don’t want to be rude, so I usually smile and say nothing. Occasionally I’ll say, “Thank you, but I did nothing noble.”
Not long after my completion of Officer Candidate School, I admitted to myself that the best way to advance American values would have been to refuse service and join the growing peace movement. I was insufficiently mature and courageous.
It is understandable that those who lost a loved one might need to justify the loss: That their son made “the ultimate sacrifice” in order to keep the rest of us safe; Or that their daughter lost her life in a mission to preserve our noble democratic principles. Wishful grief, I suppose.
Peace can only grow from kindness and generosity. We Americans need a Department of Peace led by a poet, not a Department of War led by a resentful drunk.
Pete Seeger’s words should be heeded.
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Gone to young girls, everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to young men, everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to soldiers, everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Gone to young girls, everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
We are truly living in the age of Newspeak where "negotiation" means walking up to and breaking the nose of your opponent in the "negotiation," then threatening to do more harm if you don't get a share of his wealth. It's the old protection racket in nuclear cladding. War is peace.
Excellent work. The feelings you’ve managed to express through words is very thought provoking as we approach our 250th year anniversary as a nation.
“Peace can only grow from kindness and generosity.”
Your poem selection was a perfect introduction to a poet I’ve never heard before. It reminds me our “On the Pulse of Morning” by Dr. Maya Angelou.
You give me a lot to think about, thank you. And the easiest thing I can do to begin building bridges is to be kind.
Be well!