Remembering: Reflections on Memorial Day 2007 (May 27, 2007 by James Montgomery Jackson)
Ideas generally considered to be good have many parents. Bad ideas are orphans. Memorial Day is still considered a good idea and many towns vied for the honor of birthing it. For reasons unknown to me, Waterloo, NY was the political winner of the battle of the cities for claiming rights as pronounced by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1966.
The idea of honoring the dead is not new, nor is the idea of politicizing the process. General Order No. 11, issued 139 years ago was such a politicization. The Grand Army of the Republic was the Vietnam Vets of their day. Membership was restricted to Union veterans, although eventually recognizing they were a dying breed, the organization morphed into the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. In the decades following the war they had great political strength in the Republican Party and lobbied successfully for widow benefits and later for general veteran benefits, leading to the Veteran Administration and its hospital system.
Reading and rereading the Order I found a number of points striking. First, the concept was not parsimonious, but rather grand in style. It called for “strewing flowers” on the graves of their fallen comrades. These would be fresh cut from the bounty of gardens – “the choicest flowers of spring-time.”
The language was poetic: “cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes.”
It included the then immediate political goal of the organization to “renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon the nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphans.”
It used the press to further its cause by earnestly requesting “the public press to lend its friendly aid in bringing [it] to the notice … in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance…”
By 1890 Memorial Day was recognized in all of the Northern States and not a single Southern State. No surprise since its origin was in memorializing those who had put down the rebellion, the Civil War. Not likely to catch hold in places that thought of the war as “The War Between the States” or nowadays as the “War of Northern Aggression.” Of course the Southern states held their own Decoration Days. In fact, evidence indicates the first decoration days were in the South during the Civil War.
It took World War I to expand the memorial to encompass all the war dead from all the wars. It took an act of Congress in 1971 to change Memorial Day to a Monday to assure Federal Workers a three-day holiday.
Yet these 139 years later we have failed in Order No. 11’s broadest vision to “Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the … coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
In 2000, President Clinton requested that all Americans join in a National Moment of Remembrance. At 3 pm local time everyone should take one minute to “reflect on the sacrifice made by so many to provide freedom for all.”
How have we arrived at the point where our leaders consider it appropriate to ask us to take only 1 of the 525,000 plus minutes available to us each year for such reflection?
It’s in large part about having skin in the game. The 1860 census showed a free male population of just under 14 million (whites, free blacks and mulattos, and civilized Indians). Of those, about 6 million were under the age 15 or over age 60, leaving 8 million available for war. Over 49% of those were members of the Union or Confederate forces. They had skin in the game. Those not directly in the war were producing the goods and foodstuffs needed for the war. A draft existed; the income tax was introduced (and later declared unconstitutional). Shortages of goods were rampant. Everyone had skin in the game.
Of the 3.9 million serving during that war, 522,000 died in service – 2 out of every 15. Another 412,000 were wounded – more than 1 in 10. Combined almost 1 in 4 came back wounded or in a pine box. Given the size of families in 1860, it is safe to assume very few families were spared some loss and all communities were filled with veterans. If the war is sufficiently consuming, those who participate want everyone to remember and the Grand Army of the Republic took an existing concept, memorializing the war dead, and made it theirs. As politicians know the sure road to success is to find a parade and get to the front row.
World War I, the “war to end all wars” was not nearly as all-consuming although it did serve to expand the concept of Memorial Day and spawned “Remembrance Day” in Canada and Great Britain as the Sunday closest to November 11. World War II – the war claimed by the “Greatest Generation” in many senses rivaled the Civil War, except it was fought mostly on foreign soil. I didn’t have time to figure out exact percentages, but by utilizing Rosie the Riveter and ignoring those over age 40, an even larger percentage than for the Civil War of the available males were in uniform. The draft was reconstituted, taxes increased, rationing ensued and purchasing war bonds was a patriotic duty. Everyone was forced to have skin in the game.
And when I grew up in the 50s and 60s Memorial Day was still a big thing. There were lots of men in the VFW, American Legion and DAV to march in parades. The Boy Scouts spent an entire Saturday planting flags at all veteran gravesites (regardless of how they died) and we marched in the parades as well. Afterwards many families went to their own cemetery and we children were reminded of the Uncle Harrys and Joes we never knew. The veterans made sure we remembered.
During our current war we have armed forces of 1.4 million with half again as many in reserves. So less than 1% of the “available” population is in uniform. As I was writing this, US troop deaths in Iraq crossed the 3,400 mark, a terrible toll, but it must be put into perspective. During the Civil War and World War II average monthly deaths exceeded 3,400 and that was from much smaller populations. More people die on our highways each month than have died so far in Iraq. Much of this has to do with our high-tech approach to war. Where we used to send children’s bodies we now send in smart bombs.
In current dollars this is now our second most expensive war at over $1 trillion. Yet taxes have been reduced. There is no rationing; instead our president stated it was our patriotic duty to keep the economy strong by buying more. We are letting our children pay for this war while delaying spending money on programs that will help keep our country a free republic. We have very little skin in this war and that is a problem.
General Logan urged us to “Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the … coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
We have forgotten. We need to remember. We have let the vandalism of both avarice and neglect cause us to forget the true cost of a free and undivided republic. We need to have our memories restored.
While I could rail about the current misnamed “War on Terror,” that is not the purpose of today or remembering on this Memorial Day. We should set aside some time to reflect that but for the great sacrifices of those before us we would not enjoy the freedoms and prosperity we now have. But I do not limit my thoughts to those who died fighting a war.
What time should we spend tomorrow considering the plight of those who come back from wars physically or mentally scarred? What thought for those unsung who stayed behind and sacrificed in ways those of us who are young have difficulty understanding?
Our fifth Unitarian Universalist principle calls for us to covenant to affirm and promote “The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.” Memorial Day was born of politics and of politics it remains. It is time for UUs to fully join the process, and I am not talking about protesting the war.
Whether you are for or against this war, we need to hold our leaders accountable to upholding the ideals of a free republic.
If I were to ask you what two issues are at the top of Al Gore’s agenda, we could probably all list “global warming.” Many of you have seen “An Inconvenient Truth.” His other primary issue is the breakdown of democracy in the United States.
I remember a time when the words “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” actually had meaning. We have allowed our leaders to subvert the English language and hide behind obscure semantics in order to tell little convenient truths. I lay this charge not only at the feet of the current Bush administration, which certainly deserves it, but also at both houses of Congress – Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike. We get the government we deserve and so the charge is truly laid in front of us. We choose to pass it off as “just politics.” It has “always been that way” we tell ourselves.
It isn’t. It hasn’t. And it doesn’t have to be.
I do not believe we are the free republic our veterans fought for and that makes me very angry. And on this Memorial Day I would like for you to think about our ideals and our practice and maybe you will become angry too.
Whether you are for or against this war, we need to be thankful for those who have gone before us, but it is not the dead we most need to consider this Memorial Day. Those still living and the future we are offering our children should claim our attention.
In our first principle, we Unitarian Universalists covenant to affirm and promote “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Perhaps it will take more than one minute on Monday to reflect on whether we are yet treating the widows and widowers and orphans of our wars as we should. Recent news stories clearly demonstrate we are not upholding our end of the bargain with veterans by allowing the Administration and Congress to underfund VA hospitals. How much will our children pay for our tax cuts while we fund a war on their backs? What price will our children pay for our sophistry about using torture for a just cause?
By all means, strew garlands of flowers on the graves of our veterans, but while you are doing that, spend a few moments of quiet and consider what your UU conscience would ask you to do to fulfill the original meaning of Memorial Day.
I’ve learned from my Catholic brethren that it is better to be flexible with the faithful if you want them to do something, which is why you can go to mass on Saturday. So, rather than wait until 3 pm tomorrow to fulfill President Clinton’s request for a minute of remembrance, or purest that you are, allowing you to delay your remembering to the traditional Memorial Day, May 30th, I am going to ask us to share two minutes of quiet contemplation right now.
Do you share my anger?