Once, when America was perhaps a bit more serious about questions of war and
peace, Memorial Day was not just the unofficial starting date of summer. When
Confederate widows first decorated the graves of their dead husbands late in May
1866, it was a solemn moment, as it was for Union widows when, a few years
later, they too began to garland the graves of the Civil War dead.
Well into the 20th century, Memorial Day remained a time for somber
reflection on the enormous human toll this country's wars have exacted from our
families and our communities. In some places, especially smaller towns, the
tradition continues to this day -- in rural Wisconsin, small American flags
sprout every Memorial Day weekend beside the graves of soldiers whose lives were
taken in wars from territorial days to the misguided Somalia police action of
1993.
Americans don't hear much about the keepers of tradition in a time when
Memorial Day has become a commercial marker -- the point at which to launch
"summer blockbuster'' movies and to consider the impact of rising gas
prices on travel plans. And certainly, the notion of public reflection on war
and its toll has gone by the wayside.
That's a sad change, and a costly one.
Americans need to slow down to take stock of the wars of the past, and to
ponder how new wars might be avoided. But they have failed to engage in such
reflection. It is a failure that has saddled this country with the highest level
of military spending in our history, despite the fact that most of the countries
that supposedly pose a threat to the United States are spending far less than
the Pentagon does. It is a failure that, during the 1990s, sent U.S. military
forces into misguided adventures in the Middle East, Somalia, Kosovo and other
trouble spots across the planet. And it is a failure that, this summer, could
well clear the way for development of a $60 billion Star Wars missile defense
system that even its proponents admit might not work.
The Star Wars debate is emblematic of what ails America when it comes to
serious discussion of issues of war and peace. In the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan
first started talking about Star Wars, he was greeted with a public outcry. That
response ultimately blocked the goofy fantasy of an old man who had never served
in the military from becoming the centerpiece of U.S. nuclear defense strategy.
Today, in the Cold War's aftermath, when Bill Clinton and his Republican
allies in Congress talk of implementing an equally untested and far more costly
missile scheme, there is little outcry.
And with both Al Gore and George W. Bush promoting this failed
"technology,'' there is little prospect that questions regarding its
development will be central to the presidential debates -- unless, of course,
Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader elbows his way onto the stage.
If there is any lesson that ought to be recalled on this Memorial Day, it is
that the sacrifice of America's soldiers in the wars of the past are best
honored by treating seriously questions of how and why this country will go to
war. And by making sure that, in a time of peace, shortsighted military spending
and adventurism do not rob America of the opportunity to address pressing
domestic issues.
We do not honor the dead by wasting the precious resources of this land on
Star Wars boondoggles -- especially at a time when so many needs remain unmet in
our cities and our farm-crisis-ravaged rural communities. Rather, we best honor
those who gave their lives for this country by using our wealth, our intellect
and our energy to make America all that its bravest sons and daughters believed
it could be.
© 2000 The Capital Times
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