On Memorial Day

Memorial Day seems more powerful this year than before. Perhaps because of the continuing, and escalating, violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps due to worries about our daughter in the Navy, and her new husband, just retired. And perhaps because the day caused an outpouring of press coverage of veterans, and particularly those coming home from the Mideast. And also because of the course I'm teaching on censorship, which had me checking out radical websites so as to challenge the students, who tend toward the libertarian view that censorship is bad in general, but that one needs to protect children. That led me the protests from the Westboro Baptist Church, the Phelps family enterprise that's picketing funerals of servicepeople since, the Phelps family believes, the war is God's punishment on the US since it's become so liberal and pro gay rights; this photo, from the AP's Haraz N. Ghanbari, shows a passer-by shouting at the demonstrators as they picketed at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

The look on John Keck's face says it all

To get a sense of what these 'Christians' do, here are a couple of photos, from their website--which has to be seen to be believed--www.godhatesfags.com--of their appearances at funerals in Indiana and Illinois earlier this month, and one from Illinois in April. I've seen these folks picketing the Gay Pride Parade in Columbus and, as is clear on the website and their various flyers, they're quite sincere.

They're happy to attract attention

and utterly convinced of their righteousness

This should all be no real surprise--religious intolerance obviously has a long history around the world, and "Christians" have been in the forefront of doing hideous things in the name of a diety for the past two thousand years. Still, it remains disquieting to see these wholesome Kansans smiling happily while spewing hate, and cheerfully documenting the anger their protests cause as further proof of the inevitable decline and decay of the United States. So just as religious extremists in Iraq murder tennis players for wearing shorts in public and slaughter members of other Islamic sects, Taliban followers stab women in Afghanistan, Orthodox Serbs kill Moslem Albanians in the Balkans, and Christian militia kill Moslem tribesmen and women in Darfur, we have our own, homegrown Taliban in the United States. It's hardly shocking that these folks should demonstrate at Arlington on Memorial Day--where better to get national coverage, rather than just the local coverage they gain at real funerals? Except it seems not to have worked; a web search turned up only the photo at top, on AP--none of the Westboro church folks, and only a passing mention in a couple of the press stories about ceremonies at the Cemetery of the small group of protesters. More stories about the new law President Bush signed on Memorial Day that limits demonstrations at military funerals, mentioning why the legislation was necessary.

And, of course, President Bush spoke at the ceremonies at the tomb of the unknown soldier. He predictably used the occasion to promise that our forces will stay in Iraq as long as it takes to defeat 'terrorism'; it was reported that the President teared up while speaking of the sacrifices made; "I'm in awe of the men and women who sacrifice for the freedom of the United States of America," he's quoted as saying. Meanwhile, the count of American military deaths is almost 2500, and yesterday, 96 Iraqis died at the hands of insurgents.

The President at Arlington

I won't belabor the deep irony of such brave words from our Commander-in-Chief who himself avoided active military service; it's particularly easy to be in awe of sacrifice when one took care not to be in a position to be asked to sacrifice. It's also easy to speak firmly and bravely about staying the course and being resolute when one has no personal stake in the matter--none of the President's family or friends or political colleagues have connections with the war or military. And what did the President do on Memorial Day weekend? Gave a speech at West Point, telling newly commissioned second lieutenants that they were about to go out and save the world. A question: how many military funerals has the President attended? How many fallen soldiers, sailors, and marines has he personally honored? The answer, of course, is none. Plenty of photo ops with flags, but funerals? Which might remind folks about the continuing death and destruction in our 'let's bring democracy to the world' wake.

But I digress. Memorial Day marks the sacrifices made over the past two centuries and lets us celebrate those true patriots who served when called, even if the cause was not necessarily the right one or even a just one. The war I fought in was unjust, and should never have happened--but that doesn't lessen the sacrifices members of the armed services made in that war, although it does make the evil of the leaders of the day more manifest, and makes the sacrifices far more poignant.