Memorial Day 2007
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from the mind of... Eric | 11:59 PM
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33 Comments:
Yes Memorial day a day when we celebrate those who died in conflict. Well not all deaths, just american soldiers. No wreaths laid for the victims in dafur. No parades to remember the holocaust victims. No youtube videos about the 400,000 plus dead in Iraq.
We venerate almost all professions as something noble. Each person telling each other that our contributions contribute to the greater good. Teachers are molders of the future. Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Doctors try to heal not hurt. Perhaps it might be better if we stopped placing each other on artificial pedestals. Is being a police officer better than being a secretary? Are preachers more saintly than gardeners? Is being a soldier better than being an iron factory worker?
You're an ass, BenT
Name calling? I posted exactly what I think. We place generalities on pedestals. We become chained to tradition. We undervalue people who are not american. Prove me wrong and I'll sing your praises.
I don't need anyone to sing my praises.
Even the Communists venerated their slain... but not you.
I respect american soldiers who died in battle. I just don't respect them more than civillians who died in battle. Or other nationalities war dead. There is no category of human placed above any other in my world view. To set aside one group of dead and say they were more noble, giving or great than others is juvenile. It is time america began to grow up.
P.S. This name calling thing is juvenile too.
Well, I disagree with Ben on this one. Soldiers, I believe, are a cut above the rest of us. More noble, by definition.
But what galls me is when I go to a triple-A baseball game and have to listen to an intro to the national anthem that praises all our boys and girls in uniform for making sacrifices to "defend freedom" when most of them are in harm's way because of a selective war based on bu -- oh, never mind.
I'll wave a flag this morning -- and I'll pray for wisdom to return to the White House AND Congress.
Talking about Iraq, as usual. Afghanistan, which is totally justified, could've been OVER by now if not for Iraq.
"We undervalue people who are not american."
So...we're all...umm...bigots?
That's right Daddio, everyone except BenT and those who hold the same 'truths' to be self-evident...
Ain't America great!?
You know... I used to think BenT just wrote the kind of stuff he does simply to raise my ire, and that may be part of it. But I've come to see differently, and I'm just now beginning to fathom the why's and wherefore's of my inability to recognize this sooner.
BenT actually believes the things he posts here. Again, I can't understand why I didn't grasp this earlier since I too believe the things I post here. Imagine that! It should have been plain as dry white toast. But if I had to hazard a guess as to why I didn't see this sooner I'd say my focus was on BenT's repeated jabs at much of what I post here-- I focused on my ire rather than its source.
It's easy for me to pass off the 'reality' that BenT simply desires to poke a stick in my eye every chance he gets-- admittedly, having my own pet heckler can be amusing. But the idea that he actually believes the things he posts here.... well! It seems I've been paying far too much attention to the great and powerful Oz rather than the little man behind the curtain.
And yet, Ben, for all his disagreeing with you, has not stooped to name-calling or belittling of those who disagree with him. Just stated an opinion.
Has he not?
My, what a poor poor memory you have...
No Dan, it's true. Ben's an ass. What little I've seen of his stuff suggests a personality that many would describe as such. I'm sure there's a more clinical term we could find for a Ben, but ass is sufficient and easy to use. (Hell, in my world, it's a term of endearment from the missus. But that's a different issue.)
But it's a pretty low thing to take a day, specifically set aside for the memory of fallen soldiers who've died for the sake of the people of the USA, and use it to further denigrate and negatively assume. That makes him an ass. And I say that in a true spirit of love and hope.
I think "cad" might be the word y'all are looking for.
I'm just sayin'.
A most ungrateful cad! The best cure for Ben would be to have to live in Iraq without our military there to protect him and no way for him to get out of there to return to the US.
Dan wants to go there also, because he thinks the USA is to blame for everything and he would make a good roving ambassador, but he only needs a one way ticket also.
Sometimes I do post contrarian views just to rile ya'll up. Sometimes I post to pop arrogance (as i see it). But almost always what I say has some resonance in me. America has this myth of exceptionalism. I love the nobler aspirations of this country, "Give me your poor, your tired, your hungry. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
But these ideals have changed over the years into a myth of american exceptionalism. The christian religion we worship is the greatest. The economic policies we espous are the greatest. Our Healthcare system is perfect. Our wars are always righteous. Especially in far-right circles it's as if people expect the rest of the world to step out of the way when america comes through. It's a bully/child mentality that disgusts me.
This country is over two-hundred years old. It's time we stopped acting like a spoiled child.
P.S. I'm glad that a whole series of posts personally attacking one commenter is now deemed to be within the blog guidelines.
What's good for the Administrator is good for the Commenter... I am attacked on an almost daily basis. I don't see anyone lamenting my treatment at the hands of rough tongued men.
Mom, you know Hitler's method to bring purity to Germany was to keep deporting the undesirables. Is that what you're advocating? Everyone who isn't christian and republican sent to a war zone?
D.Dad, No I did not use the word bigoted. I think american culture is arrogant. I place myself often in that category as well.
Marshall, did I denigrate soldiers? Are my words really so empowered? Have I destroyed all the meaning you placed in Memorial Day? Certainly I had not meant to bruise your fragile worldview. My point is that fallen doctors day isn't a bank holiday. This country's fascination with militarism is juvenile, a sign of an undeveloped morality and mentality. Starting to recognize that each death is a lessening of all would be a nice first step.
EL, Do you remember Mr. Ealy? Do you pray for the starving in africa, china, north korea, and south america? In 2005 were you sad even for a moment for the thousands dead in france from the heatwave?
John Donne said it best "No man is an island, entire of itself... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind;" This is perhaps the greatest thing I took from high school literature. It is one of the foundations for my morality.
By it's very nature the first paragraph of this thread of comments IS denegrating.
Donne notwithstanding [exceptional quote, btw], there is a lot of hypocrisy in some of your contentions. Darfur? the Holocaust?
We can all breath a sigh of relief that Senator Biden, who almost daily marginalizes himself and secures his own defeat in the Democratic race for the Oval Office, has boldly stated that when he is elected President he will send troops to Darfur. How many on your side of the ideological aisle have raged against Bush for taking us to Iraq for no good reason, getting in the middle of an ethnic conflict we can't hope to quell, and yet Biden and many other Democrats want to do the very same thing in Darfur? Think you there won't be bloodshed? Innocent lives lost? Will you begrudge American troops a day of remembrance because innocent civilians are killed in the process of restoring the peace?
What about the Holocaust? Schools all across Europe [and undoubtedly in the U.S. sometime in the near future] are foregoing any study of the holocaust for fear of offending Muslim students who believe Hitler's final solution [which ultimately claimed 12 million lives, only [SIX million of which were Jewish lives] was a grand hoax perpetrated by the Zionists! We have to respect Muslims because they might rise up in anger as they did in Spain, France, England, and elsewhere... but it's okay to denegrate Christians... What hypocrisy.
It's juvenile to take pride in ones country and war dead on a day set aside to honor this nations war dead? Some might look at your comments and see the thoughts and expressions of a juvenile not yet come to full intellectual maturity. Some might look at your comments and wonder why you didn't move to England when you had the chance. And yet, it is your inalienable right to speak your mind and to try to affect change, if you can by peaceful means do so. No ones going to imprison you on a ship and keep any news of America from ever reaching your ears for your comments, but neither will you find much respect for having voiced your inalienable right to speak your mind as you did.
Much of what BentT says is dead-on right. But one mark of a civilized man is to know when to speak, and when to not -- and my neck is red enough to think that of all days, this is a day for critics of this administration's war in Iraq, and this country's failures, to shut the hell up and concentrate on the men and women in uniform -- if nothing else, to keep in mind that they serve to defend the Constitution, not this insane president. The people's patriotic duty to sever this president from the Constitution is another thing entirely.
Bad form, Bent. Just rude, crude and bad form.
But Mom2, you've let your dander get so far up, you're babbling, just lashing out willy-nilly. Calm down.
But Mom2, you've let your dander get so far up, you're babbling, just lashing out willy-nilly. Calm down.
May 23, 2007 5:12 AM
Oh psaw! ER. You're babbling like a wet diapered, know-it-all. I saw your picture and you got a whole lot of living to do before you are as smart as you think you are. Years of schooling do not necessarily, an education make. You're so proud of them thar degrees. I'm old enough to tell you that you still have a lot of lessons to learn and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The deaths of soldiers who are dying in an attempt to bring peace as well as the deaths of innocent victims of evil regimes are tragedies indeed.
We Christians decry all deaths at the hands of evil.
However, Memorial Day is a United States Holiday, created to memoralize those brave men and women who died to keep our country free. Therefore it is appropriate to honor the sacrifice of only Americans on this day.
I would suggest if BenT wants to memorialize other non- American deaths all over the world, he should write a letter to his Congressmen and suggest a world wide Memorial Day.
Otherwise either honor American dead on Memorial Day or don't celebrate memorial day at all. It's your choice. A choice, by the way, that American soldiers died for your right to make.
BenT can't be held entirely accountable for sneering at Memorial Day.
This is what Memorial Day has become in this country. It is simply a day off.
After all, how many of the rest of us spend the day in sackcloth and ashes lamenting the loss of these brave men and women? I don't. Do you? Or do you spend the day at picnics and cook outs and ball games, etc.?
Don't forget all the Whites Sales! Remember, white will soon be in fashion!
We celebrate the spilling of 'Red' by going out and buying 'White'. But there is a white we should all go out and buy, and it doesn't cost a single red cent... only the shed blood of Jesus.
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
--Isaiah 55:1
Mom2, two ahowings of buttocks do not make one right.
As I recall, I also pointed to you that age does not equal wisdowm. Sometimes it just means you're old.
Now, go ahead and get another dig in. You can have the last word in our little ongoing spat, 'cause this post ain't about you, OR me.
Your missing my point. Today. Is being a soldier really an ennobled career? My sister's husband joined the army because he got a $19,000 signing bonus. He did two tours in Iraq before getting out. Two of my uncles joined the military. One voluntarily, because he wanted to go to college. Uncle Joey spent two decades stationed in Ramstein, Germany. The other uncle, Uncle Tommy, got drafted and sent to Vietnam. Today no one knows where he is because of his meth habit. Both of my grandfathers were in service during World War II. My paternal grandfather was at iwo jima. My maternal grandfather served stateside. He met his wife, my grandmother, in uniform.
Members of my family for a long time have served this country. But none of them were motivated by the nobler ideals of patriotism to join the armed services. They sought education, money, and travel. I think these have become the primary reasons men and women join the military -- the benefits.
Don't succumb to the marketing. No one reveres gas station cashiers or cab drivers who die in the performance of their jobs. If you want a summer holiday white sale, then fine, call it the summer holiday. But this fascination with militarism I see as another sign of American culture's juvenilism.
BenT,
Regarding your relatives: Did they do their duty while in uniform? Whatever the reason they joined, if they served honorably then they deserve that higher respect afforded all in the military for the POTENTIAL of being in harm's way on our behalf. The day in question honors those who answered that call, either with noble or selfish motivations upon enlistment, and sacrificed themselves. But to your point, I would like to see this day include members of the police and fire departments who's lives were lost in the course of duty. I find there sacrifice to be equal.
"This country is over two-hundred years old. It's time we stopped acting like a spoiled child." BenT
Okay...so we should be responsible?
Trusytworthy? Dependable? Moral? Er...ummm...CONSERVATIVE?
If modern liberalism is your model of maturity, BenT, I'd rather remain a spoiled American child!
Look around you! You belittle conservative ideology and espouse the irresponsible vulgarity of modern leftism and talk about maturity?
American conservative thought is the maturity within our society. Liberal thought is the hot-headed childishness.
"Is being a soldier really an ennobled career?"
Is it NOT?
Just askin'!
Is your sister's husband representative of a majority? Did he take the recommended oath of srvice? Did he understand what would be expected of him if he signed on the dotted line?
Is joining the military in order to get good OJT while learning a career and for cash bonuses really any different from changing jobs and locations in the civilian world? Everyone has risks, regrets, reasons.
Excellect points, Daddio!
This might be a better video for you to commemorate Memorial Day with EL. Written by Mark Twain ... The War Prayer.
Been there, done that. Not dissing Twain, his little tale is simply not apropos. The point of Memorial Day isn't to pray for the gruesome deaths of our enemies, but rather to remember our own fallen soldiers; their and their families sacrifices.
A very moving piece, but not apropos...
Mom2, two ahowings of buttocks do not make one right.
As I recall, I also pointed to you that age does not equal wisdowm. Sometimes it just means you're old.
ER, If you meant two showings of buttocks......please stop showing yours. As for your second remark, sometimes your kind of answers show a lack of respect to anyone that does not see things the way you do and I do not make it a part of my language to get vulgar and insulting. You are like Dan, in that I was a married woman when you were wearing wet dirty diapers and I can tell that you would be a better person if you were to birth and raise a child from infancy.....
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