In peace time, Memorial Day is a day of commemoration of those who sacrificed. My mind fills with memories of parades, picnics and a sense of national pride, respect and unity. I can't judge now whether this was right or not...it might have been an illusion. However, things have drastically changed with self-proclaimed war President Bush at the helm. Memorial Day takes on a different reality this year. Day-to-day our lives are now filled with mounting deaths and scary wars and rumors of wars. Our minds are barraged with double-talk and outright mistruths...no, let me say the harder words----big lies needed to pacify and perpetuate our indifference to it all. This is required for who is it that would willingly sign on for another son or daughter sacrificed, more unaccounted for killings of innocents and for more hatred toward the U.S.? This is the building legacy of the Bush Administration---one that will have rippling negative influences on you, me, our children, every nation and the world for years to come, if we do not wake up as a nation and as individuals.
Nations with vision are powerfully enabled.
Nations without vision are at risk.*
This Memorial Day can be a day of reckoning. Unfortunately, many of our citizens will continue to be blinded by the black out of truth and the foundation being crafted for more destruction, greater greed and loss of lives, while we eat hamburgers and hot dogs. Will you? Norman Solomon wrote a telling piece on this reality in his article:
The Silent Media Curse on Memorial Day.
Memorial Day weekend brings media rituals. Old Glory flutters on television and newsprint. Grave ceremonies and oratory pay homage to the fallen. Many officials and pundits speak of remembering the dead. But for all the talk of war and remembrance, no time is more infused with insidious forgetting than the last days of May.
This is a holiday that features solemn evasion. Speech-makers and commentators praise the "ultimate sacrifice" of American soldiers -- but say nothing about the duplicity of those who sacrificed them. War efforts are equated with indubitable patriotism. Journalists claim to be writing the latest draft of history, but actual history is no more present than the dead.
In the truncated media universe of Memorial Day, the act of remembering bypasses any history that indicates an American war was not inevitable and unavoidable. The populace is made to understand that God and nature must be death dealers. We are encouraged to extol those who bravely gave their lives and took the lives of others -- but not confront those, high in the U.S. government's executive and legislative branches, who cravenly gave their fervent blessings to gratuitous carnage. MUST READ more...
To honor those who have sacrificed, listen up! this Memorial Day. For the sake of your families, country and world, open your eyes! See for yourself. Think. Question. Get involved! Be the change you want to see in the world. ---Gandhi
Debbe Kennedy
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com
* Joel Barker's Power of Vision
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