Why Memorial Day is Important
Pope John Paul II famously said, “War is not always inevitable, it is always a defeat for humanity”.[1] For those of us living in the United States, Memorial Day can and should serve as the ultimate example of this fact. Today, we should remember the lives lost due to the ravages of war. We should remember the sacrifices of the past. So many people have had their lives ruined by war. Not only do we see a countless number of soldiers who died during battle, we find so many more who find their lives ruined because of what they have seen and done on the battlefield. They came back maimed; they came back psychologically damaged; they found little to no peace for themselves. For some, they came back heroes, but for so many, they came back to find themselves mistreated, abused by their countrymen, allowing them no chance to find the inner healing they needed to turn their lives around. We must also remember the families of soldiers; they, too, have sacrificed much, have found so much pain and sorrow as a result of war, due to the lives which have been lost. War is a defeat for humanity, and we must remember the past, we must remember the tragic side of war, so that we can overcome all romantic visions of war and stop ourselves from looking for it, or worse, looking for people to conscript so as to send them out to war. So many good people lost their lives because of man’s inhumanity, because of man’s hatred for their fellow man. We should honour them by remembering them today; then, we should say with Pope Paul VI, “No more war! Never again war!”[2] We must do everything we can so as to prevent the tragedy of the past to return to us today. By looking at the past, we can see the sorrow of war and know why we must prevent it. This is what we can get out of Memorial Day. This is why Memorial Day is important.
[1] Pope John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 13 January 2003.
[2] Pope Paul VI, Address to the United Nations Organization, 4 Oct. 1965.
Comments are closed.
Er, what does that have to do with my post?
Just because there is nothing a person would be willing to fight for does not mean there is nothing more important to that person than their personal safety. I would say that to be willing to die for something is more powerful than being willing to kill for it.
We already have conscription through the reliance on National Guard forces to do the job that the active duty military was intended for. They have served with distinction. They were pulled from civilian jobs to do that, however.
One of the arguments against conscription is that it pulls in poorly motivated, ill-prepared civilians for a job they never wanted to do. By conscripting National Guard forces they get around that and grab people who are typically community service oriented and well-trained. When I was in the National Guard I was in because I wanted to do my duty if needed, but I didn’t want to be part of a standing army. That has now changed. They have turned the National Guard into a budget priced standing army, and have screwed them over by removing financial protections during deployments that had been in place since WW2, and not having to support them between deployments.