Todd M. Siebert: A Memorial Day message

Sunday 29 May 2016

A Memorial Day message

It’s Memorial Day.

Many Americans receive the day off; and it’s not unusual for them to spend the day at picnics, barbecues, the lake or beach.

Memorial Day began in the U.S. in May 1865, when newly freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, exhumed the bodies of Union soldiers from a mass grave at the Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) and gave them individual graves.

The following year, and each year thereafter on May 5, a Decoration Day observance was held in Waterloo, New York. To commemorate the occasion, the graves of fallen soldiers were decorated with flags and flowers in cities, towns and battlefield graveyards across the nation.

In 1882, the alternative name of Memorial Day was used, though it did not become commonly used until federal law declared the day in 1967. In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill set the date as the last Monday in May rather than the more traditional day of remembrance, May 30.

As you enjoy this holiday, remember the souls who were lost on the battlefields.

There were those who really fought for freedom from tyranny. There were those who, because of state propaganda and sense of patriotism, thought they were fighting for freedom, but were really fighting for the interests of the banksters, the corporatists, the hegemons and the oligarchs. Then there is that class of men and women who join the military, the reserves and the National Guard for extra money and pensions, never suspecting that they are mercenaries ready to be called up for foreign and even domestic combat. These “volunteers” were lured to sell their bodies to stop bullets.

And then there are those, like in the War of Northern Aggression, the World Wars, Korea and Vietnam, died after they were conscripted and forced into servitude by the state.

As a boy of age 17, I joined the National Guard at the end of World War II. I almost got called to go to the Korean War, from which several of my National Guard friends never returned.

Personal Liberty Digest™ is a site that promotes discussion from all sides of the spectrum on a variety of topics. Unfortunately, some of the discussions devolve from rational debate to name-calling exercises in futility.

Let’s set aside our partisan ideas and ideologies today and recognize those who died. Whether you believe they died on the altar of freedom or in wars of aggression on behalf of empire, they were no less precious to their families.

Respectfully,