Does being a soldier who merely steps foot on foreign soil qualify that soldier as a "hero" who's defending his country?
Because I don't think so.
And yet so many are being sent to other lands to come back as "heroes" while those doing the sending, are all too reluctant to go and be "heroes" themselves.
Why should I feel compelled to honor anyone on Memorial Day? We don't even really have what so many fought and died for anymore. How DARE we go through the motions of suggesting that we would hold their sacrifices to be "sacred" on this one day when we can't even do it during the other 364?
Y'know, you don't have to be a soldier, or a sailor, or a marine to be deemed worthy of being a "warrior" in this country. Safeguarding our liberties is a job for all of us, and those without the guns have a helluva lot more responsibility than those with the guns will ever have.
Instead we've shirked our duty. And we pat ourselves on the back for thinking we're "good Americans" when we congratulate those coming back home without a limb, or an eye, or a life.
You can't really remember those who died for freedom when real freedom is already dead.
EDIT 10:27 PM 05/30/2005: just found a really good essay by Doug Newman titled "Memorial Day 2005: Are We Even Worthy that puts things a lot better than how I tried to describe 'em here.
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