Memorial day 2016

History, as it does from time to time, seems to have been spun erratically again... in light of this Memorial day weekend, I have already been inundated with a barrage of half witted attempts to cast poor spin on events of the past and present. For the sake of the less inclined to conduct research, lle me begin with a few nuggets of what really happened (as opposed to the ill-fitting interpretation that is being vomited on us as fact):
1. Memorial day is a holiday that began as a salute to fallen confederate soldiers in the war of the states/civil war (perception dictates the name - but THAT is for another soapbox). It has morphed to honoring the fallen from both sides of the aforementioned conflict, further expanded to incorporate all US military members who have given their lives in combat. Oh, and opportunists have adjusted their hours and special offers for those who want to honor the dead by getting a great price on a new...
2. U.S. military personnel have died on non-US land by US operated equipment. War is an ugly and divisive reality from which many do not return (innocent and guilty alike).
3. There is no correct way to honor the end of a life, especially one lost to violence that didn't directly  involve those embroiled in the physical battle.

Having cleared my mind of that muggy mess, it is now my privilege, as a veteran and former honor guard participant, to thank every person who has lost a loved one that was killed in military service to the U.S.A. I remember handing over a precisely folded flag to someone whose eyes were too drowned by tears to meet mine and say, "on behalf of the president of the United States and a grateful nation..."

As a salute to fallen US troops, it makes perfect sense to visit places where our men and women physically died and to call for rational restraint in using the devices that killed them (among the others those same devices killed). Sadly, though, as messages spring up about how this or that leader ought to have said or done this or that, I find myself replaying the honor guard sentiment in my mind. specifically, there have been outright verbal and written condemnations to President Obama for having visited the memorials to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It seems that when Mr. Obama encouraged listeners to find less destructive ways to develop our desire to create, some interpreted it as a disregard for our fallen warriors. As I read (&re-read) the transcript of that speech, I find the same sentiment that was used to provoke the celebrators of Decoration day to honor Union soldiers as well as Confederate.

Have we really become so willfully indifferent to "spin" that we will mindlessly accept our faction's voice as truth despite the reason of such philosophers  Plato, Kant, Descartes, or Occam? If, in fact we are living a self-fulfilled destiny, My encouragement today is to seek out a meaningful way to signify this year's Memorial day, and perpetuate that which you love rather than strike out against that which you don't love.