A Memorial Day Opportunity

This weekend of remembrance affords us the opportunity to honor all the victims of war...for those sacrificed in the noble effort to forestall the forces of international fascism as represented by the National Socialist Party in Germany and, in the ensuing decades, those made to pay the ultimate price of allegiance to governments not reluctant to employ pretext and prevarication in the pursuit of perceived gain for political elites and certain economic benefit for the corporate masters whose self interest fuel the ongoing insistence on the invocation of violence as a matter of first choice.

We also might bow our heads in recognition of all who continue to suffer the lingering and devastating effects of exposure to war the trauma of which lives on well after the fact. While the bottom line of Lockheed Martin, Dow Chemical, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, et al continues to grow in this new age of perpetual conflict and strife, other lost souls continue to pay the ugly price for the enrichment of a select few who reap the tainted benefits of an economy grounded in and based on a permanent war footing.

Would it be so that all the misery suffered by those sent into harm's way and the millions of innocents sacrificed at the alter of this barbaric institution would, at the very least, result in the immediate safety of humankind and the likelihood of a peaceful future. Sadly, however, with each bomb that falls and with each drone strike carried out by a hidden hand, our collective security is threatened; not enhanced by an endless cycle of violence and retribution.

On this solemn occasion, we might now lift our heads and envision an alternative future where the admirable dedication, loyalty, bravery, and integrity abundantly displayed by the vast majority of service members throughout time will join forces with enlightened civilian leadership to form a coalition of purpose dedicated to the proposition of a peaceful resolution to dispute, respect for the implicit value of all human life, and the institution of a defense based on the active implementation of principle, and creative solutions to human conflict rather than the application of ill-conceived, self-defeating, narrowly defined, and destructive modes of response.