Stateside With Rosalea: Shamorial Day

The high fructose corn syrupy celebration that is Memorial Day in the United States is a sham. Not that the creator of the original commemoration didn’t see that coming:

"Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic." -- General Logan - May 5, 1868

Logan’s idea for Decoration Day roughly coincided with another initiative: In 1866, a shop owner in Waterloo, NY, suggested that all the shops in town close for one day to honor the soldiers who were killed in the Civil War.

What?! Close for a day? Gimme a tax break! Memorial Day weekend is seen as both the beginning of summer--similar in mood to Labour Day weekend in New Zealand--and just another merchandising tool.

That lack of respect is much to the chagrin of the folks who support a Bill to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day. In their eyes, the Holidays Act of 1971 has demoted the occasion to an excuse for just another three-day weekend. An online petition supporting Sen. Inouye’s bill for a solemn May 30 commemoration is linked to from http://www.usmemorialday.org/act.html

It must come as no surprise, then, that many people wonder if servicemen and women died in WWII so Toyota dealers could offer special interest rates in a “Memorial Day Blowout Sale.” On top of that, Detroit’s big three U.S. automakers, Toyota, and other automakers have chosen this very weekend to launch an ad campaign against fuel economy requirements that the Senate and House are working on.

Wanna support the automaker lobby in its bid to keep the U.S. dependent on oil? Go to http://www.drivecongress.com/ and get into the action. Remember, there are only 35,000 lobbyists on Capitol Hill and a staggering 535 members of Congress, so the lobbyists really need your help! In the year since last Memorial day, nearly 1,000 troops have died in Iraq to preserve the automakers’ right to build gas guzzlers, so how could you not support the effort?

Ah, but I’m just a bitter and twisted newcomer who saw this sign in Arlington National Cemetery and thought:

Click for big version

Can’t someone figure out a third way, one that avoids the pitfalls of a political system that allows kings to be conjured out of a ballot box and a legal system that allows the military-industrial complex to ride roughshod over the nation’s ideals?

As Dwight D. Eisenhower said in his farewell speech as President in 1961:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

On Memorial Day, shouldn’t the media be honouring those who died to protect the security and liberty of the United States by doing what it can to create an alert and knowledgeable citizenry? Instead, it peddles schmaltz, devalues heroism, and sells off its airwaves and pages to avaricious corporations that push indebtedness and greed as family values.

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE --

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