Memorial Day
began as a consecration of war dead following our Civil War, by recently freed
people honoring their comrades who fought and died with the Union Army for
their freedom. Its purpose was one of mourning, not celebration; it is only in
this generation that it has become — in the mass culture of the United States
of America, at least — a festival for commerce and pageantry, far removed from
any context or awareness of battlefield casualties. Out of respect for those
who died and for those whose lives were forever changed by war, we must not
allow this to happen. We don’t need bumper stickers or parades; we need
solidarity.
It is not the first time that capitalist
society has hijacked the intended meaning of a holiday; we see the same kind of
ahistorical interpretation of Mother’s Day, which was itself a product of 19th
century anti-war movements. As veterans
of America’s adventurism abroad, we reject the notion that Memorial Day should
avoid the uncomfortable question of this nation’s longest-running conflict.
Since 2001, the United States has waged
ceaseless, objectiveless warfare in the Middle East, Central Asia, North and
East Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia. We’ve been at war in
Afghanistan for nearly seventeen years. A generation has been born into this
unending conflict, and we will soon have service members who have never known a
time when this country was not at war. As of today, we have lost 6,915 service
members directly in battle or in support of hostilities abroad, the
overwhelming majority of whom were working class. We have lost many more to
suicide and the after-effects of military service, at an average rate of 20 veteran suicides
each day. We have contributed to the deaths of over a
million people worldwide by bombing their homes, destroying their livelihoods,
and instigating a near-apocalyptic refugee crisis in the Middle East. We have
spent more than $5 trillion at the expense of all else while we’ve allowed our
nation’s infrastructure and schools to rot away. With no real tangible
objective, the endless campaign to support American Exceptionalism
abroad resembles a truck marooned in sand, spinning its wheels and
churning, getting nowhere while digging itself into an even deeper hole. There
is no turning point on the horizon; continued engagement by armed forces will
not improve the situation. It will cause only more death and waste: all of it
unaccountable, most of it invisible to all but its victims. And there are
always victims; entire communities overseas live in our shadow, wondering if
the next plane overhead will be the last.
Memorial Day is billed as a moment to pause
and reflect upon those who gave their lives and yet we spend the day either
exalting uniforms or pretending their wearers do not exist. We cannot — we must
not — allow pageantry and uncritical and unexamined support of foreign policy
to remove the context in which so many young service members have died since
2001: serving alongside comrades in a war without purpose, without end. Nor can
we, by virtue of being in a privileged position to ignore the impact of war
waged on other countries, pretend that we have not killed untold numbers across
the world — often unjustly, and always violently. Many more will die of their
wounds, be they physical or mental. Our pine boxes roll onto the tarmac
off-camera and our veterans return home to dwindling prospects and quiet
resignation to their class. This is unacceptable.
What has $5 trillion bought us? What goal is
worth the cost of so many lives? How many innocents have died at the hands of
the military industrial complex? These are uncomfortable questions that civil
liberal discourse and right-wing jingoism deem inappropriate at any time, much
less on the day we consecrate our sacred fallen. Must we never ask this
question, opting instead to salute a flag and a uniform, to a representation of
fidelity and sacrifice for which we cannot explain a purpose? Should we instead
celebrate capitalism and its limitless atomized diversions for those able to
afford them? Liberals, the guileless beneficiaries of this bloody supply chain,
think it uncomfortable to ask. Fascists and jingoists, the worshippers of
violence and action on behalf of the state, think it treason. We say, now is
the time. We say, speak the uncomfortable words: that maybe we have consigned a
generation of working class people across the world to fight and die for an
ill-conceived folly to deepen the pockets of the war-profiteers.
On Memorial Day, let us endeavor to end this heedless violence. We cannot continue to divorce in our minds and culture the pageantry and pomp from the reality of our foreign policy. Let us call it what it is: death and profit purchased with the brutal ends and blighted futures of so many. It is not a day to celebrate a uniform or a sale price. It is, as it was intended, a day to consecrate those who died. May they not have died in vain; may their memories guide us to a better world, a peaceful and humane world, a world where they might have lived the lives they gave.
The DSA Veterans’ Working Group seeks to
provide a conduit for veterans to connect with their communities and with each
other to fight for our shared goals: racial, economic, social, environmental,
gender, religious and disability rights justice. We oppose militarism,
jingoism, and war-profiteering, having witnessed and experienced the effects of
these in our own lives. We reject the misuse of United States of America tax
funds to support imperialism and adventurism abroad instead of rightfully
safeguarding the welfare of all people residing within our country. Our mission
continues as organizers and comrades helping to enact democratic socialism.
Join us at: http://www.dsausa.org/veterans_working_group
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