Memorial Day

Posted by Lorren on May 25, 2009

Today is Memorial Day. A day that we tend to have a day off… a day that we should take a little bit of time to remember those who died in war.

I’ve been listening to The Great Influenza, a book about the 1918 flu epidemic. The flu took hold shortly after our country went to war. The Wilson administration took an almost dictatorial position during the war, making it illegal for newspapers to publish anything negative about the country that could hurt the morale during wartime, encouraging the formation of groups of people loyal to their country that would spy on their neighbors, and publishing propaganda pieces.

Without that little tidbit of knowledge, I used to think of the days of WWI and WWII as very patriotic. Where people loved their country, where our country was determined to win the wars that we had been drug into. I always thought that that was admirable. We are very disintegrated today. While I don’t like how fractured we have become as a nation, I also don’t think that sending out the goon squads to enforce patriotism is right either.

When officers take the Oath of Office, I find it interesting that officers pledge to “support and defend the Constitution.” They don’t pledge to follow the president or support the government. This Memorial Day, our Constitution is being trashed by the current government. It has been for years, but many of us are just waking up to the facts about how much the Constitution is being trashed.

It makes me sad to think that all those people have died in war, yet nowadays the ideals that they have fought for are being thrown out the window like it doesn’t matter. Perhaps the Tea Parties and new awareness of how far we have strayed will create enough action to get it back on track. Otherwise, these people have died in vain.