W.J. Astore
The best way to honor sacrifice is to seek an end to war and militarism
I was asked for a few words about Memorial Day. Here’s what I came up with:
On Memorial Day, we honor those who died in the service of our country. Let us do everything we can as a people and a nation to stop war and all its brutality. A peaceful future without war and all its awfulness is the best way to honor our troops, even as we cherish the memory of the heroes who gave their all.
Too often, Memorial Day is reduced to sales events, barbecues, and the like. It is, of course, a solemn occasion to remember the sacrifice of American service members. To honor the dead. To cherish their memory.
Yet one can also focus too narrowly on the veneration of the dead, using euphemisms like “the fallen” and speaking of how troops willingly “gave” their lives for their country. The best antidote to this is a short video by Andy Rooney for “60 Minutes” (when that show still had some principles and bite). Rooney, who’d served in World War II, knew of what he spoke. His goal was to end war, to save the living, to make a better world.
If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to watch it and to reflect on his sad and wise words.
Bracing Views 
Amen, Brothers and Sisters. “Ain’t gonna study war no more”.
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Andy Rooney’s video is one of the most moving I’ve ever seen regarding this solemn day. It should be REQUIRED viewing by all our government officials including the all agencies. It needs to be broadcast on all the tv channels as well. Then and only then will America rid itself of this self destroying act of violence. Just sign me a Vietnam who has seen enough.
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Young Americans need to stop volunteering to act as enforcers for the insane policies (foreign & domestic) of what is by definition an inherently inefficient, wasteful, and coercive territorial monopolist of ultimate decisionmaking and violence: The US Federal Government.
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Andy Rooney was right, but some new religion?
This religious admonition is still applicable, but dismissed and ignored for the love of CONTROL, POWER & MONEY!
“This is the word of the Lord to ZerubBABEL, saying: ‘Not by military force and not by physical strength, but by My spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts.”
How about this from the Sermon on the Mount?
“Blessed ARE the PEACE MAKERS for they shall be called the Children of God.
They’re banned from the US/NATO MSM, denied a voice and exposure in the prescribed WAR narrative inciting for more WAR needing more Children of WAR.
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Dragooned and Bullied Ex-Patriot
(From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley)
In early manhood’s time they came for us
Distressed that we might plot a course our own
And not one pledged to serve their animus
We had begun to reap what they had sown;
From seeds of dragons’ teeth sprang fighting men
On fields of battle far from homeland grown.
Yet grim news filtered back both now and then
Of great success that almost had expired
From using up its youth time and again
A great success, indeed, that then required
A fresh transfusion of the red supply
Of winning fights, old Pyrrhus never tired
Yet few could smell the stinking, reeking lie:
Our youth was spent for what the old would buy
And so to mask just what they had in store
For us who had no choice and lived in dread,
They tried to feed us patriotic lore
Designed to earn our trust but not our bread
But when that didn’t work as warfare bait
They switched to using threat of jail instead
They worked on us from early dawn till late:
The Press, the Church, the School, the Law combined
To wipe us blank of thought as any slate
The Great Success abroad seemed to have dined
On all the easy lives it could obtain;
And yet it hungered still for our young kind
Our leaders, though, felt not the slightest pain
To them we meant no loss but only gain
Some Fear Itself had seeped into our land:
Reactionary Panic, Mystic Dread,
And Abstract Anger gained the upper hand.
Then fearing “communists” beneath each bed
The Best and Brightest shipped us overseas
To shoot a bad idea in the head
Despite some vaguely heard pathetic pleas
From those whose brains had better things to think
The ones in charge cared only for their ease
They hesitated not, nor did they shrink,
As they from off our backs our freedoms flayed
They sent us to a swamp to swim or sink
Our youth again found its young self betrayed
To die from history our elders made
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2006
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True story of original Memorial Day by a Yale Historian……
https://archive.ph/xlHYa
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And not forgetting Memorial Day Massacre….
https://www.pbs.org/video/memorial-day-massacre-workers-die-film-buried-3hzo89/
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All blame and responsibility for this war is on the U.S. and the far-right Ukrainian nationalists that it fostered, financed and armed. Had Washington truly wanted peace and justice, then the White House would have pushed for a geopolitically neutral Ukraine with a federal system that respects the rights of ethnic minorities.
With Washington’s blessing, Kiev chose war and ethnic cleansing, and so, since 2014 nearly 5.5 million ethnic Russians have fled eastern Ukraine to seek safety in Russia, making the country by far the largest destination for Ukrainian refugees. Many are from the city of Donetsk and surrounding towns and villages.
Moscow had always hoped for a peaceful solution to the Donbass conflict. But the West wanted war, using the Minsk accords to buy time to arm Ukraine and turn it into a highly militarized pitbull. Vladimir Putin’s big mistake was trusting the West and believing a peace deal was possible…………………………………………….
https://john365.substack.com/p/homage-to-defiant-donetsk-kievs-war?
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