Spent about an hour looking for my site. They made changes again. All the internet sites keep making changes whether you want them or not. Couldn’t get in. It kept telling me that there was no site connected with my email. Really frustrating. Anyway, I finally remembered to look up my emails and found one that had announced some of the changes and had a link. So…here I am.
I doubt that my same thoughts are still in my head though after that hour of frustration with the stuff. What I was thinking about though was the way people on Facebook recognize Memorial Day. I see lots of people remembering the dead servicemen…but what I feel is that with their recognition and honoring of the soldiers, they are…glorifying war.
And I don’t think most of them are consciously glorifying war, but I keep thinking…if we really want to honor our war dead, what better way than to it than to…eliminate war! And I know we can’t realistically eliminate war, but we can PROTEST war at every opportunity! Say “HEY! You politicians got my loved one killed with your wars! We’re sick of it! Sick of wars for every generation! Sick that our kids keep having to go to foreign countries and get in harm’s way for YOU GREEDY BASTARDS!
But i feel that if anyone starts talking negatively about…about anything…while someone is honoring their dead, that the families would take it as a personal affront…a personal attack on their dead soldier. When its not at all about that.
I know, and most people know that soldiers are only pawns in the bigger game of world politics. I personally have never thought ill of the soldier or other service person for being a service person. If they are a service person and a jerk…well its the jerk I am down on. I don’t like jerks no matter what they do in life. I have absolutely no tolerance for them. One jerk I came to know relatively recently comes to mind and I have a hard time getting the picture of his jerkface out of my consciousness. Its like that. As far as the soldier goes, I honor them for their service in spite of the fact that they should never have had to go in the first place. They should not have to become soldiers.
It’s true though. Many people can not separate the soldier from the person. All they see is a trained killer. I am so sad that this is the way the world is. Not just in our country but throughout the whole world. I feel like I want to say things every chance I get…but most of it will fall on deaf ears. And much of it will be interpreted as a personal affront to however another individual thinks. And on and on…
I feel like…I…need to do something! Need to say something…even knowing and understanding the futility of it all.
As I grow closer and closer to the end of my time on this earth, I don’t embrace the fantasy that there will be a heaven to go to when I am dead. Many people do. In fact, I believe that most people in this world embrace in one way or the other, the fantasy of some type of religious belief. And it puzzles…and seriously troubles me…that more people have not…seen the reality of the fantasy of religions!
Whoa! How did I get here? What happened to Memorial Day?
I know it was a natural progression from believing in country and war…to believing in religion and god. A few…have seen the reality and said something. Writers…Artists…Singers…Speakers,,,etc. I think of John Lennon right off with his song…Imagine. It says it outright…and yet most people don’t even see it. I’ve seen religious people…embrace the sentiments in that song…even though it speaks a heresy to religion. They simply don’t see it. They see a nice sentiment…but not the reality of the actual words that talk about how beautiful life could be without religion.
That’s why things are the way they are. Not enough people willing to see reality. Its so much easier to live in a fantasy. And that brings it back to war and soldiers. When people honor their dead service person, they want to believe that they were doing a noble thing by participating in war. The truth is, that their goal is to kill other people. Other people. Other humans. Oh sure, these other humans are framed as firmly as possible as the bad guys. And sometimes there are some really bad guys in wars…
Humanity has not even come close to evolving enough to not have all those bad guys…so wars shall go on for ages. And I guess that’s what bothers me most of all. When I was young, high school and college age, I was so idealistic. I was so heartened by my generation trying to end war. I was even idealistic to thinks it could be all wars. HA!
But I saw…or felt I saw…progress in humanity from being so war mongering…to maybe backing down a bit and trying to do things through more diplomacy and less killing. Progress I thought. But what I didn’t see was that a lot of the killing just changed shape.
Quite honestly now…I see…or feel I see…that all that progress has gone backsliding away as if it never happened. I thought that when we elected a half black person, that we as a race, and as a country had come so, so far…from where we were when I was young… And then, in a few short years, so much of that progress has totally disappeared and we are left with more hatred and divisiveness than I remember from my youth. It feels like all this has happened on my watch. In my lifetime, so I…am at least partially responsible for it. I feel like I could have done more…should…have done more…
Sadly…I feel now that nothing I can do or say will have any impact on this world we live in. That I am wasting my time…no matter WHAT I do! I want to say things more often and on more occasions and to more types of situations. But I see…that a lot of the time all it does is agitate people and creates animosity…instead of helping anyone to see.
The only ones who will ever see…is those who go searching. You might even say…Seek, and ye shall find. We’ve all heard that before, along with some other very righteous words. The problems is…people will only find what they seek. And most will only seek what they want. They won’t seek reality because that is too harsh, and even painful. But fantasy is good. And the fantasy of God and Country serves a lot of people pretty well for most of their life…especially if they focus on the fantasy of it…and not the reality.
One of the memes I read said that it was wrong to wish people a Happy Memorial Day…because it was a day for somber memories and not fun and joy. And some people even think its wrong to smile and laugh at funerals. There is a time for laughing…even at funerals.
