Memorial Day.
No War.
As many of you know, I generally write a column intended to bring a
little humor to the lives of those who read it. This article,
however, is serious.
Those who know me would generally say I’m socially liberal and fiscally
conservative, skirting the line between Democrat and Republican.
To
me, what it means is I put consideration of an issue ahead of any
blanket
belief system.
I live in a pretty liberal part of a pretty conservative state, which
as regular readers know, is Ferndale, Michigan. I drive a foreign
car because
I think it’s more attractive and is built better and I wish the
American automakers
would get on the bandwagon and produce a better product. Ferndale
is
just north of Detroit, car capital of the world. My point is I’m
not
afraid to be individual.
This is Memorial Day weekend, 2003. For most Americans, it’s the
first day of summer, though summer doesn’t actually begin for almost
another month. It’s the day when we get together, drink beer,
grill hot dogs and hamburgers, and enjoy the fact that, for most parts
of the country, we’ve sailed through another winter, more or less
unharmed. Michigan had a tough winter, so people can be forgiven
for wanting to forget it.
What concerns me is how little attention is paid to the real purpose of
this long weekend. Memorial Day is about remembering those
citizens
who gave their lives in defense not only of our nation, but of our way
of
life. They died to protect our right to be free Americans.
What really got me thinking about this topic was a series of yard signs
on the front lawns of several homes in my neighborhood. On no
less
than three lawns as I drove out of the neighborhood were signs
proclaiming,
“No War.” When did I see these signs? We’re talking
yesterday,
here. The signs went up while the UN and the United States and
United
Kingdom were discussing whether or not to go to war, then went to war,
and
now after the war. No War.
I’m a firm believer in the First Amendment. It’s often abused,
often bent nearly to the breaking point, but it’s the one thing we’d
rather do just
about anything to keep alive. People have the right to
speak. My neighbors have the right to speak. I have the
right to speak. It’s what makes us uniquely American. In
fact, I feel it’s so important to know our rights that I included a
copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights on my website – they were
there even before my own writing. Stop
by and have a read sometime – it’s interesting stuff.
My neighbors have the right to object to the war. But I wonder if
they stopped to consider what it is they’re objecting to? And I
wonder
if they considered the impact of their objections now, on Memorial Day
weekend?
Any rational person would be hard-pressed to argue Saddam Hussein and
his ilk were good for the people of Iraq. Certainly, arguments
can be made that George Bush only wanted to go after him as a sort of
family vendetta. Let’s look at the bigger picture, though.
For people to be reading this
article, which appears solely online, they must have a computer and an
internet connection.
That belies at least a moderate income level. In Iraq, people had
to share phones, had no computers, and little or no connection to the
outside world. If they were lucky, they might have a radio that
could pick signals
other than those produced by the Iraqi government, who controlled all
the
media. We take our freedom to share information, often
instantaneously, for granted.
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To me, and to many of the
Americans who supported the war, this wasn’t some personal vendetta
between the Bushes and the Husseins, but a war to extend our freedom,
our way of life, to other human beings. It was a war to remove a
brutal and oppressive dictator from power. When I see “No War,”
it’s tantamount to saying, “leave Hussein
alone.” I wonder what kind of person would want to leave Saddam
Hussein
and his sons in power?
We’re not telling the Iraqis how to live, other than to live as free
people. Democracy is still a relatively new concept on this
planet, and by and large, we’ve done a good job of not trying to force
it on others, but Democracy’s antimatter is oppression and Democracy
will rise up against it sooner or later.
So I think of my neighbors and their signs and wonder if they
understand just how important those signs are. They are the
ultimate expression of why we sent our ships and our planes and our
soldiers to Iraq, even in the face of world objections. Had an
Iraqi chosen to erect an antigovernment sign, he could have been
imprisoned, or as was popular in Hussein’s regime, tortured and
killed. In America, we take our freedoms so for granted that it
never even occurs to us that others don’t have them. Even as the
war started and raged on, people had “anti-war rallies,” which were
tantamount to anti-government rallies, and all our police forced did
was make sure no one got hurt. The people were allowed to have
their say. No one in Iraq dared utter anti-war sentiments, at
least not until they were sure the Husseins were gone and weren’t
coming back.
Memorial Day is a time to remember those who protect our freedom,
including our freedom to object to those in power. But let’s make
sure we remember who it is we’re objecting to and make sure our
objections, if any, are properly placed. During the Vietnam war,
disillusionment with the government was frequently misplaced on the
soldiers who fought the war. Then, the
soldiers were predominantly draftees. Now they’re
volunteer. What does that mean? It means that the soldiers
protecting us today are doing so because it’s their choice, yet another
expression of American freedom. They could sit in their living
rooms with their TV remote controls
and watch the war from their arm chairs, but instead they have chosen
to
put their lives on the line to defend us, and to defend freedom
throughout the world when our government, our people, decide it’s
necessary. Yes, we sent our brothers and sisters, sons and
daughters, friends and colleagues, into harm’s way, but it’s a career
they’ve chosen. Whatever our political, cultural, or other
persuasion, that deserves our respect.
There were three No War signs. There was, however, one other sign
that caught my attention – it read, “We Support Our Troops.”
Those
are the signs we need more of. Memorial Day is a good time for
families
to be together and for us to get a brief, welcome respite from the
labors
of our regular days, but we need to at least ponder, if only for a few
moments, the real reason for the holiday and thank those who have
served and who continue to serve to bring freedom, and ultimately
peace, to this planet.
Andrew Barriger is a regular contributor to this publication and can be
reached online at andrew@andrewbarriger.com or through his website,
www.andrewbarriger.com.
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