Memorial Day follow-up

As we usually do, last weekend Maxine and I watched the PBS-sponsored Memorial Day Remembrance. We appreciate it for the performances (even though we know few of the performers), but more for the stories of heroism and sacrifice that are told.

I was particularly moved this year by hearing again what our POWs in Vietnam went through. Surely there were times when they must have wondered if it would have been better to have been killed than to suffer as they were.

The piece about World War II reminded me that it was about preventing a racist and ruthless tyranny from overtaking human existence and history. WWII was about preserving democracy, in all its inherent messiness, as the preferred means of human governance. My life would have been very, very different than it has been if the Allies had not won.

I am deeply grateful to the men and women who gave completely of themselves so that I have been able to enjoy the one life I dare call my own.

At the same time, it seems to me that the decisive fights for human dignity and freedom are waged not on battlefields, but in the halls of government and the court rooms of justice, and usually in times of peace. Military victories that save us from others must be secured and preserved in the political work of those we elect to serve us. If they do not do that work, the war dead will have died in vain.

If I get it right, soldiers must know—deeply—that the battle is not about them. It is about a larger and more inclusive us, and they—the soldiers—are players in a larger enterprise whose goal is the survival of some still larger enterprise. That is the only way their willingness to sacrifice their lives makes sense. Otherwise, why do it? Why join the fight at all if your only concern is preserving yourself?

So if we celebrate soldiers who have sacrificed everything for us, should not we who are beneficiaries of their sacrifices be willing to sacrifice as well? They served. Should not we?

A renewed sense of service and sacrifice could help us get back to the business of being one nation of liberty and justice for all. Our elected political leaders can show us the way by their examples. What we choose them to do is not about them, or their success. It is about us and our flourishing, together.

When our public servants speak and act to call attention to themselves as if they alone could save us, or to crassly appeal only to their subsection of the populace, they encourage us all to flail about, punching at ghosts and apparitions, instead of confronting realities. It’s a fight we all will lose.

To lead us is to serve us, and to serve our nation is to serve as many of us as possible for the good of all of us. Leaders who serve and sacrifice honor those we remember on Memorial Day more than all grand parades, passionate speeches, and waving flags.