This Memorial Day weekend, we’ll see a lot of flags and sales, calls for patriotism and empty words and bluster. So much so that the meaning of what we’re memorializing often gets lost. We talk a lot about the sacrifice and not enough about what we were fighting to preserve. We should remember that people in this country, people from all over the world, fought for an idea. For a promise. And yes, that idea has never been fully met, and that promise has been twisted into propaganda to justify madness and destruction far too many times. But still, like Sam said, it’s an idea worth fighting for, for some good in this world, Mr. Frodo; Ahh, Tolkien, he understood. Anyway, the promise of America requires constant vigilance, because, once again, we are seeing it under threat—probably more than ever. That needs to sink in, because I think we’re a population that has gotten used to safety and stability, and for many of us, it’s too hard to grasp that we’re living in one of those moments where what happens in the next year or so will define our path for generations. You know, like one of those moments we so like to memorialize on this particular holiday.
Memorial Day is generally reserved for those who served in our military, but it’s often phrased as those who fought and died for our freedom. Well, a lot of people fought and died for our freedom, and many of them never got a paycheck, or a pension, or a guarantee of being taken care of; they just fought and died because they too were willing to sacrifice for the greater good. But still, people who served in our military also fought to keep the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all alive in the world, even when the idea was twisted into something like invading Iraq or Manifest Destiny. I’m sure many who served in those situations did so with the best intentions. But not all, as we see with the ICE agents of today, many are willing to align with the power structure, or use it as an excuse to be cruel. And the architects? Those who bring us to these places. They know better. And they have often used the familiar calls for freedom to justify taking away our liberty and taking for themselves what should be available to everyone. In short, stealing the promise. That’s why the oath of office says:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Clearly, we have some people in power betraying their oath of office.
So here we are, we’ve probably never been closer to losing our Republic for good. And tens of millions of our population have fallen prey to the usual deception of offering freedom to a few by depriving it of the many. This weekend, we’ll hear people beat their chests about having the biggest, baddest, most lethal fighting force on the planet, as Trump did at his West Point Academy commencement meandering rant—you can’t really call it a speecht—where he conflated brute strength with the strength of character to do the right thing. Amazing, right? The man who has no understanding of sacrifice was able to fool millions of people into believing that he stands for freedom, and yet, as we’re often told, freedom can’t exist without sacrifice. Well, that shouldn’t have to be the case, but all too often it is. And so what is that sacrifice? The willingness to fight for an ideal, right? That we all have an inalienable right to be free? And who do we fight for that freedom? People like Trump, and the entirety of the Republican party, and rich bastards like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and Zealots like the Heritage Foundation, that’s who. The charlatans who come around and gather power and use it to take away the promise of freedom. They’re always around, and it’s our job to stay vigilant because we have been fighting these forces from day one.
That’s what we should be remembering on Memorial Day. Not just the fallen and those who stood up, but instead, we should remember what they fought for in the first place. What’s the point of honoring them if we let what they sacrificed for slip through our fingers? Whatever Jefferson truly meant isn’t as important as what the world took it to mean. It was a rallying cry against tyranny, regardless of how many times we misused it or disregarded it, it is still there. And no matter how many people get fooled into reckless violence in its name, it’s still there, for now. But there are no guarantees that it will be there for the next generation, or even next week, that’s what constant vigilance means.
And that’s what we need to remember on Memorial Day. Let’s not be the generation that lets the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness die on our watch.