Remember
May 26th, 2008
It’s Memorial Day here. A day to remember those who have died in defense of this shining beacon of liberty known as The United States. It is not a day to honor veterans, even though it is often misrepresented as such, even by our current President, who can’t seem to get anything right. Veteran’s Day is in November. Today we should pause to remember those who gave their lives so we can enjoy our hot dogs and burgers at our cookouts this afternoon.
War, in all cases, is such a stupid waste of lives that we should all be working to make war a thing of the primitive past of humanity. But for all the waste of lives and tragedy they cause, wars have been a part of much progress. It took a war to establish this country on principles of individual liberty that were previously not even recognized as existing. It has taken wars to defend those liberties over the years. But we humans need to find better ways, civilized ways, to work out our differences and move forward with social progress. Maybe some day.
I took this second photo as my response to 9/11. I was seeing a lot of really bad flag photos around that time and I thought I could do a little better. I wanted it to express the mood of the country, saddened but patriotic.
9/11 was a huge tragedy which brought the sympathy and support of the entire world to the United States. It’s a second tragedy that our leaders squandered that sympathy on a senseless war that has done nothing but worsen the world situation and bred new terrorists. I look forward to a significant change in 2009 that, I hope, will mean fewer brave Americans will have to sacrifice their lives in service to their country.
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