The Line

Memorial Day 2021.

I came of age during the Vietnam War.
Protests.
Anger.
Sadness.
The daily death count at the end of the evening news each day.
I cried the first time I walked along the Vietnam Memorial
on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
58,267 names.
A few were of young men I knew.
We should honor their service.
And the service of others.
We should wrap the families who still grieve in our care and concern.
We should also wrap our care and concern around those whose names do not appear on that wall or on other memorials or plaques in nearly every town or village in our nation because many of them still carry the scars of those wars.
We should honor their service, but not glorify the wars they fought.
That line, between honor and glorification, is subtle and very easy to cross.
War is hell.
We forget that fact at our own peril.
And, war is a failure.
A failure of our shared humanity.
And, of our ability to find a better way.

So, this Memorial Day
Let us remember.
And honor.
And rededicate ourselves to finding a better way.