If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
I didn't really get Memorial Day until this trip to an English WWII airfield.
It is disturbing that many women service members believe that they are in more danger of experiencing sexual assault from their male comrades in arms than they are of being felled by enemy fire.
Team Ken is the group of people who meet every Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the life of 1st Lieutenant Kenneth Ballard, who was killed in action May 30, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq at the age of 26.
Monday was a national day of memory. For those of you who forgot to remember, its never too late to stand by those who have fallen.
A Vietnam veteran sits down next to an Iraq veteran and asks him, "How long have you been living in this homeless shelter?" The Iraq veteran responds, "Ever since Memorial Day." And they laugh. Really, why shouldn't they? The joke is, after all, on them.
Being anti-war does not mean that you still can't value the mission of the soldiers as the guardians of our liberties and our way of life-or their status as "heroes," particularly those who fought and died.
Across the country this memorial day, in parks and at parades, before sporting events and at graduation ceremonies, the hypocrisy of men extolling the glories of warfare was on obscene display.
I categorically reject the opinions of those who say that creating such a class or league of "heroes" would play down the brutalizing effects of war, would justify, even glorify war and would desensitize us to the cruelties and atrocities of war.
I recently returned to Pearl Harbor for a documentary film about that day of infamy and its many ripples through the subsequent 70 years of history. It was deeply personal work because I worry that the lessons of that day are in danger of being forgotten.
Every Memorial Day growing up, we would go to the Winnetka, Ill., Village Green where there is a large monument to all the service members who had die...
This Memorial Day, as we remember those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom, let's also remember the additional price that our gay and lesbian service members and their families pay every day they serve our country under discriminatory law.
The men of my father's generation were stalwart, laconic men of few illusions. Most of them had served in Korea, and many had seen combat in Vietnam as well.
Some of us were marching off to war and some of us were marching in the streets of Washington. The Vietnam War very quickly created rifts in a generation.
Each Memorial Day, my thoughts return to 1969 when I served in Vietnam. I remember the young men we lost in the in the Ninth Combat Infantry Division ...
While too many Americans are struggling in this economy, it's particularly difficult for our young vets. Currently, more than 12 percent of our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are unemployed. This is unacceptable.
Mindless threats and meaningless bluster will not bring the world closer to peace. We must finally embrace the reality that leaders of countries, especially undemocratic ones, will do anything to stay in power.
