They Died for This?

 I have not written in a while, but today I want to say something. We are approaching the Memorial Day Weekend. First, let me clear up a common misconception. Memorial Day is to honor service men and women who have died. Think about a Memorial service. That is a service to honor the person or persons who have died. This holiday is often confused with Veteran's Day, which is always November 11th, which honors anyone who has served or is serving in the U.S. Armed forces - Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines. I want to talk about Memorial Day specifically. No one in my immediate family has ever served in the armed forces. I have friends who served and a great uncle that I never met, but the impact of losing someone in battle has never happened to me personally. I do know, for lack of a better resource, through movies and television, the horrors of combat. I am specifically thinking of the beginning sequence of Saving Private Ryan brilliantly shot by Steven Spielberg. I have posted the clip before, and I won't post here again, but if you haven't watched it, you need to. This post is not about that day. This post is about the fact that people died fighting for FREEDOM! Not just ours in America, but to liberate other people from oppression. Yes, over the years the question has come up of whether we should be in a war or going to war or stationed in a country to protect others from cruelty and injustice, and the abolishment of their rights as fellow human beings, but regardless of what people thought at home, men and women were dying for FREEDOM. Let me stress that again in case you didn't catch it the first time. DYING for FREEDOM. 

I listened to an audiobook not long ago, The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. It takes place during World War II. It is a work of historical fiction. It is told from the point of view of 3 women, all affected in different ways, by the war and the aftermath. They are all connected in some way to Ravensbrück Women's Concentration camp. If you are not familiar with this particular camp, as I was not until listening to this book, it is where medical experiments were done on the women there. I also listened to The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. This was a true story. In both these books, one of the hopes the prisoners hold onto through the terrible torture they are forced to endure each day is that the Americans are close. They will be rescued soon by the Americans. I focus on World War II because I think most people have more than a general knowledge of what we were fighting for, but all service persons who have died no matter what, are important and we owe them a debt of gratitude. Hell, we owe them our lives which brings me to my point. Looking at the state of this country today, what did they die for? And before you come for me with both guns blazing - sadly that phrase is all too literal these days - this is not about the Left or the Right. This is about FREEDOM. Those men and women died so we could be FREE, ALL OF US, NOT JUST WHITE HETEROSEXUAL MEN! I watch the things that are happening in this country on a daily basis, and I can't believe the reports I'm seeing are about THIS country, the United States, and I leave out America, because even that carries a negative connotation these days because of the people that wave the American flag with pride while they're spewing hate. On May 21, 2023, the NAACP issued a travel warning for the state of Florida, following closely after The League of United Latin American Citizens and Equality Florida stating that Florida "has become openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and L.G.B.T.Q.+ individuals." I'm sorry, WHAT??? I am reading a warning from all 3 of these organizations that if my oldest daughter, who is proudly Pansexual, wants to visit her aunt, who lives in Florida, and by the way does not agree with the state's policies or the hate their Governor is spewing, it could be dangerous for her to do so. This is not what those men and women died for. I am ashamed of the country we have become. My daughter posted a very scary map of states that are already dangerous to live in if you are part of the Trans community, and the ones that in a matter of 2 years could be enacting laws that would pose a danger. Virginia is one of those 2 year states. I live in a state that could possibly pass laws that say it is illegal for people to be who they are!

What is going on? We are better than this! You know what? Maybe we're not. Maybe this is always who we were, and now we've been given the "permission" to show it. I would be embarrassed, no, ashamed, to stand in front of any of those soldiers who died on the beaches of Normandy, or on the battlefields of Korea, or in the jungles of Viet Nam, or in the desert in Afghanistan or on and on and on, and show them this country and what we have become, what we are letting happen. That we have turned the freedom they fought for into hate and outlawing individuals. Really? They died for this?

A Debt We Will Never Be Able to Repay

So much of what we perceive of history nowadays is what we see in film and television. When I was growing up through the 60's and 70's I never wanted to see a war picture. They were boring. That was something for boys. I carried this feeling into my adult life. I don't usually want to see a war picture, so when "Saving Private Ryan" came out I had no desire to see it, eventhough I love Tom Hanks. Sometime last summer I was flipping through the channels and I came across the film. I had heard that the first part of the film, the Omaha Beach Scene, was extremely gory and violent. Spielberg had wanted people to see the truth, the reality of war. Well, he got what he wanted. There is no glamour, no glory. It is 24 minutes of noise. Noise of bullets flying and explosions and yelling. Watching it was one of those things where you want to look away, but you can't. If you have the opportunity, rent it and watch it. As a child in history class, when we had talked about the invasion of Normandy, I always thought of it as a victory, we win. I never realized how many lives were lost on that day in minutes until I saw "Saving Private Ryan." There is this amazing shot at the end of the Omaha Beach sequence. The noise has stopped. It's silent except for the waves crashing on shore over the bodies and then the camera pans, and you see nothing but bodies of soldiers and the ocean water is turning red with blood. It's an amazing scene. It made me feel a whole new appreciation for what those men went through. I thought, how did they do that? How can someone willingly walk into a situation knowing there is a very strong chance they will never survive? Not only that, but that they are doing it for people they have never met or will meet. So often in fiction war is romanticized. The young soldier goes dashing into battle, eager to fight and conquer the foe, but watching this very real depiction made me realize they were scared boys barely out of their childhood. Saying thank you is not enough for them or for their families and loved ones who lost them. At least we have a day to honor them, right? Right, a day that has become about cook-outs and the pool opening and big sales events. I'm not saying people can't have fun while they have a well-deserved day off work. I'm just saying, for a few moments, stop and remember why you are FREE to do those things and how very much it cost.