Losing Decoration Day

Decoration Day was what my grandmother always called it.  We don’t call it that anymore. That was the original title for Memorial Day, started after the Civil War to honor the men who had died fighting for what they believed in.  And she told about how the day was dedicated to talking about the American values those men had died for.  We don’t do that anymore either.  You never hear the media talk about just what it was that was so important that America lost enormous numbers of men in the prime of life.  Did they die for nothing?  If I were to play Jay Leno and ask people in the street to tell me why we fought in the Spanish American War, I bet only 1 in 100 could explain. Pity.  Why don’t we talk about it?

The War Between the States was fought by men on both sides who strongly believed in opposite interpretations of a value.  The South fought for individual states rights. Listen to the songs. Hoorah! Hoorah! For southern rights Hoorah!  Hooray for the bonnie blue flag that bears the single star!  The North fought for the inseparable union. The Union forever!  Hoorah, boys, Hoorah!  Down with the traitor and up with the Stars. So was it to be star or stars?  The underlying issue was slavery, and on that was hinged the disagreement: Union or States Rights. 

The War of 1812 was like that in that an underlying issue was that the British wanted to re-colonize America. It was called the Second War of Independence after the war but what was being fought for at the inception was the abuse of Americans on the high seas.  The Spanish American war was also fought because Americans were being abused when they tried to do business in the Caribbean by Spain.  Some would argue that USA had colonial desires, but Roosevelt and the Rough Riders didn’t volunteer for colonialism.  They fought for rights and freedoms.  The First World War had an ostensible slogan Make the World Safe for Democracy and USA fought on the side of the most constitutional monarchies, once again, pro-rights and anti-tyranny.  WW II was fought when we were attacked by fascists and of all the wars in our history, it was the one Americans joined with the most eagerness and anger at the opponent.  But if you ask many people, ”So what is wrong with fascism?”  they give some lame explanation about the Holocaust.  Well, we fought the entire war without knowing about the Nazi death camps. “Try again.” Fascism, National Socialism, represents a system of government control of vital businesses and people.  That was anathema in America.  We fought for rights as well as we defended our existence when attacked.  As we were attacked unprovoked again in 9/11, we fight for our right to exist and for rights that Islamofascists refuse.  Ironically it was a second time.  We fought them in the War of the Barbary Pirates in 1800.  We fought the spread of full-blown socialism in Vietnam and Korea, and another National Socialist Baathist dictator in both Gulf Wars.

What’s the common consistency?  We fight for rights, just as in the original Revolutionary War, and we oppose those who deny those rights, either monarchies or socialists.  First to fight for rights and freedom, then to keep our honor clean.  goes the Marines Hymn. We Americans sometimes disagree on the extent of rights and freedoms or the need to go to war. But today, oddly enough, we have those who rather side with a progressive national socialism, where rights are subordinated to the state in exchange for well-being, government controls key industries closely, and the Constitution is optional.  Don’t tell that to the veterans of the Civil War who fought over an interpretation of the Constitution and rights.  600,000 men died in that war. There were 12 million Americans in 1860, hence 6 million males or about 3 million adult males.  So America lost 20% of its men fighting for their cherished beliefs.

You say, “Well, Americans will never fight Americans again.” But if half of America believes in rights and the other half thinks rights are lesser than benefits--health care, minimum wage--there is surely going to be conflict.  I find myself wanting to tell progressive smiley-faced fascists that their fathers fought against exactly what they want.  John McCain does it better.  He, a war hero who can’t lift his arms over his head because of the torture he went through in Vietnam, was giving a Memorial Day address when a leftist heckler started screaming about Republicans being rich.  McCain paused as the security guards escorted the heckler away and then stated, “Jerk”.  Well put.

What did they die for?  We need to have this discussion every Memorial Day.