Sunday, May 27, 2007

Memorial Day

I just don't have it in me to believe that dead people of "my kind" are any more valuable or missed than dead people of someone else's kind. The fallen are just as missed by those who loved them, regardless of what "side" they came from. So today I offer for our contemplation two images of grief.


Anthony Martini of Chicago, mourns his brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Philip John Martini while visiting a memorial of over 3400 pairs of boots representing the U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq, in Chicago's Grant Park, Saturday, May 26, 2007. AP photo.


In the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, some of the students killed Tuesday by uniformed gunmen at what seemed to be a phony checkpoint were buried on Wednesday. The students, six men and two women, were traveling in a van when they were stopped by men in Iraqi Army uniforms. Karim Kadim/Associated Press
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5 comments:

  1. June ButlerMonday, May 28, 2007 9:32:00 AM

    How deluded we are as people of faith if we think that dead Americans are more precious in the eyes of God than dead Iraqis.

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  2. AnonymousMonday, May 28, 2007 1:16:00 PM

    Into paradise may the angels lead you,
    And may you have peace everlasting.

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  3. johniebMonday, May 28, 2007 8:40:00 PM

    Thank you, Jan; I have a great deal of trouble with all patriotic expressions, especially around war holidays, as I just explained at Grandmere's, but yours express my patriotism very well indeed.

    And what Mimi said, again and always; you must know Eleanor, Mimi. It is a delusion, for, if God did not graciously continue to protect such children from knowledge of their own folly, they would burn up in a flash, or quietly become Not. And yet we blaspheme, and live, and are not even amazed at this.

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  4. AnonymousTuesday, May 29, 2007 2:09:00 PM

    Seems to me that NPR programs (and presumably also other US media) are becoming more and more war-worshiping lately. They may not mean to be, but apparently they want everyone to know they CARE about and HONOR "our troops," which results in a lot of attention to "sacrifice" and "those who gave the last full measure," etc. Good intentions should be acknowledged, sure. But good intentions that lead to wrong actions require a two-fold response: stop the actions while respectfully explaining why the good intention has led the doer astray. What alarms me is that recent NPR coverage seems so reverent about this sad sacrifice on the alter of war. Since I feel the country is being reshaped into greater militarization all the time, I hate to see reverence for war.

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  5. June ButlerFriday, June 01, 2007 4:59:00 PM

    And for all that we honor them, they are still dead.

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