About 3 days ago, my buddy and I were headed down to freemont street in Vegas. To enjoy some time at my favorite casino and 99cent shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate. And as a tradition, it is fun to go and watch the live light shows that they have overhead, every hour on the hour. Well, normaily they have shows by Queen or Don McLain. I enjoy watching them and then moving on with my evening.
However on this night, the show that was played was Trace Adkin's "til the last fires shot". And as it started it really didn't dawn on me the upcominig weekend or just how patriotic Freemont Street, of all places, was about to get. Now i should have known, having just worked the ACMA's where this song was played live. But anyways, as the song startes we see working and active duty military type in different images scanned across the Freemont mega-video screen. And within seconds row after row of name after name fill the screen of all the military we have lost. (I don't know if it was just from the Iraq war or every war) And the saddest part of it all. In the middle of the video screen is a counter. A fucking counter. That is spinning through thousands and thousands of numbers every minute. And if you watch, it is though you are looking at the milli-second hand of a watch. And there it is just spinning and spinning away. It got up to well over 30,000 thousand before i had to turn away.
Disappointed partly cause i didn't get to see a cool Freemont Street video show and just out of pure sadness. I mean what kind of show was that? Do i need to be reminded that people die in our militrary. And further more, how about all the other countries military's around the world. No one is sad about them losing men and women in battle!!! So as I am walking away, the show comes to an end. And unlike what would normally happen, where the streets go crazy and everyone is happy they saw a fun rock song video. No one is clapping. I mean NO ONE. It was just the most depressing moment of my evening.
And having seen that and now it is Memorial Day i just have to say. What the fuck is memorial day and WHY! WHY do we celebrate the death of people fighting in a war???? Isn't that just a LITTLE morbid. And further, isn't it a little prejeduce and wrong for us to only celebrate US military involvement. Again, i say. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE THAT HAVE DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY!!!
Anyways, i received this article from my uncle (thanks Jamie) regarding Cindy Sheehan's own thoughts on memorial day. You don't have to agree with what is being said here, but it is just something to make you think and perhaps realize that people dieing is never good for anyone or does it acheive liberation and bringing freedom to anyone!!!
The Day of the Dead
May 25, 2009
Cindy Sheehan
I was on an airplane flying to Orange County from Sacramento to attend the al-Awda Conference; which is a Palestinian Right's Conference. Al-Awda translates to "The Returning, " when the Pilot's voice filled the cabin to make an announcement that I think went unnoticed by most of my fellow passengers, but I heard it.
As the plane was on the approach to John Wayne airport, the Captain came on the intercom to remind us all to "remember our brave troops who have died for our freedom." Even in this post 9-11 paranoid paradigm, if I wasn't belted in for landing, I would have popped out of my seat at 13D and charged up to the cockpit to let the pilot know that my son was killed in Iraq and not one person anywhere in this world is one iota more free because he is dead.
As a matter of fact, the people of Iraq, the foreign country thousands of miles away where my oldest child's brains, blood, and life seeped into the soil, are not freer, unless one counts being liberated from life, liberty and property being free. If you consider torture and indefinite detention freedom, then the Pilot may have been right, but then again, even if you do consider those crimes freedom, it does not make it so.
Here in America we are definitely not freer because my son died, as a matter of fact, our nation can spy on us and our communications without a warrant or just cause and we can't even bring a 3.6 ounce bottle of hand cream into an airport or walk through a METAL detector with our shoes on. Even if we do want to exercise our Bill of Rights, we are shoved into pre-designated "free speech" (NewSpeak for; STFU, unless you are well out of the way of what you want to protest and shoved into pens like cattle being led to slaughter) zones and oftentimes brutally treated if you decide you are entitled to "free speech" on every inch of American soil.
If you watch any one of the cable news networks this weekend between doing holiday weekend things, you will be subjected to images of row upon row of white headstones of dead US military lined up in perfect formation in the afterlife as they were in life. Patriotic music will swell and we will be reminded in script font to "Remember our heroes," or some such BS as that.
Before Casey was killed, a message like that would barely register in my consciousness as I rushed around preparing for Casey's birthday bar-be-que that became a family tradition since he was born on Memorial Day in 1979. If I had a vision of how Memorial Day and Casey's birthday would change for my family, I would have fled these violent shores to protect what was mine, not this murderous country's. Be my guest, look at those headstones with pride or indifference. I look at them, now with horror, regret, pain and a longing for justice.
I can guarantee what you won't see this holiday weekend are images of the over one million Iraqi dead. Say weassign, in an arbitrary way for purely illustrative purposes, an average height of 5 feet for every person killed in Iraq and then lined those people up from head to toe. That gruesome line would stretch from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon…950 driving miles up Interstate 5. If we count the Iraqis who have been forced to flee, we would have to go back and forth between L.A. and Portland another four times.
There are obscene amounts of people who have been slaughtered for the US Profit Driven Military Empire who do not count here in America on any day. People in Vietnam are still dying from the toxins dumped on their country by the US, not to mention the millions who died during that war. Let the carnage escalate in Afghanistan while we protect our personal images by turning a blind eye to Obama's war crimes. Are you going to feel a lump of pride in your bosom when the coffins start to be photographed at Dover for this imperial crime of aggression? Will you look at those flag-draped boxes of the lifeless body of some mother's child and think: "Now, I am free." Is it better to be dead when Obama is president?
A tough, but real, aspect of this all to consider is, how many of the soldiers buried in coffins in military cemeteries killed or tortured innocent people as paid goons for Empire? To me, it is deeply and profoundly sad on so many levels. If I have any consolation through all of this, I learned that my son bravely refused to go on the mission that killed him, but he was literally dragged onto the vehicle and was dead minutes later before he was forced to do something that was against his nature and nurture.
Casey will always be my hero but he was a victim of US Imperialism and his death should bring shame, not pride, as it did not bring freedom to anyone. I will, of course, mourn his senseless death on Memorial Day as I do everyday.
However, we do not need another day here in America to glorify war which enables the Military Industrial Complex to commit its crimes under the black cloak of "Patriotism."
>From Palestine to Africa to South America, our quest for global economic domination kills, sickens, maims or oppresses people on a daily basis and about 25,000 children per day die of starvation. I am not okay with these facts and I am not proud of my country.
I will spend my reflective time on MD to mourn not only the deaths of so many people all over the world due to war, but mourn the fact that they are the unseen and uncared for victims of US Empire.
3 comments:
Now you know I love you but I completely disagree with you here. Memorial day is not a day to celebrate the dead, it is a day to remember your loved ones that have passed on as well as those in the military who have given their lives fighting for our freedom. Now do I think they should have died no I dont but they chose to sacrifice themselves because they thought that they were protecting me, and I will never be anything but appreciative of that. Memorial Day for most people is remembering that people have sacrificed for you and going to visit the graves of the loved ones that you have lost. There are a lot of reasons to do this, to take one day out of every year to remember people in your lives that meant so much to you, and to thank those people for their service who have passed on. I dont think war is the answer but neither is pretending it never happened. And things like that awful counter are there to really show you the price of war, so maybe next time this country will think a little harder about jumping into conflict. And as far as remembering people in other countries and the fact that they died too is all well and good but the day is about every person remembering and honoring people close to them, homage should be paid to all who have died needlessly but the day is really about remembering your loved ones. I understand your anger and that you are uncomfortable but I am proud to remember my family members that have passed on and reflect on the times I had with them, and I am especially proud of the ones that served in the military for all the things they gave up to do what they thought was a service to the entire country.
DITTO
Thank you for your input my love. I see where you are coming from and agree with about 99percent of it. I did not go into alot of what you did, and thanks for stating that. I actually did not (and how a 30 year old gets to this point in his life without knowing this i don't know) but i didn't really think of it as honoring ALL of those who have died. I really was looking at it solely from a war/militrary point of view. And when you say FAMILY, i mean come on... that makes perfect sense. Oh course i want to always cherish and remember loved ones close to me.
As for the "counter". I just look around me (in life) as i did on that street at Freemont and kinda think that no one cares. I don't think we learn enough from past wars, nor do we EVER realize they are not necassary. As if it wasn't already evident, i approached most of this blog at shock value and hatred for war.
And take the song at hand. "Til the last shots are fired" Will that day ever come? I mean seriously. K, clearly i should just write another blog on war... but whateva.
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