Who can you commemorate today?

This weekend in the USA is Memorial Day which usually (Covid-19 pandemic aside) includes festivities that involve an extra-long weekend, the opening of public pools, celebratory parades, and family picnics. More importantly, it is a day when we honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States Military. Many will visit cemeteries and memorials and you’ll often see people wearing a red poppy flower, a tradition that dates back to a World War I poem.(1)

The holiday is originally known as Decoration Day and originated after the Civil War. Some interesting facts – the Civil War which ended in 1865 claimed more lives than any of the later conflicts in U.S. history.(2) And at this time, those freed from slavery started one of the first Memorial Day ceremonies to honor fallen Union soldiers.(3) This is an important time to remember how vital freedom, equality, and peace are to the survival of humanity.

In 2005 to honor my father 60 years after he fought as a young man in World War II, we took a journey to southern Holland to meet a Dutch family who he had befriended during his involvement with the 104th Timberwolf Division that had national and international meetings every year and that promoted mutual exchange between veterans and people they served overseas. The Oostvogels warmly welcomed us into their home in Achtmaal, a small village in the south of the Netherlands. They were actively involved in their community regarding reenactments and had a small museum in their garage. The mayor and her husband came out to greet us and thanked my father for his service in helping to liberate their town at the end of the war. As a 19-22-year-old, he was responsible for removing land mines, organizing river crossings, and performing infantry operations. He was stationed in the European Theater of Operations in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. 

I remember the many stories my father would tell us – how he almost drowned in the Rohr River during a boat crossing, but miraculously as he started to lose consciousness, a rope wrapped itself around his ankle and in a last attempt to save his life, he was able to figure out which way was up and climbed out of the water and into the boat. During the battle of Hürtgen Forest how he chased a soldier up a hill – not to shoot him but to scare him away (he would not shoot to kill) – the soldier realized he wasn’t shooting, so he stopped, turned and shot at my father and hit his rifle which he was holding across his chest and broke in two. Both stunned at what had happened, they smiled (out of relief) and ran in opposite directions. Or after the Cologne Cathedral was bombed, he and his fellow infantry were driving through, and he hopped out (at the upset of all) to run into the Cathedral to say a prayer. I still have a small piece of blue stained glass from a bombed-out window that he had picked up before he jumped back into the jeep.

What I respect about my father and his stories is that the theme always centered around his commitment to kindness, compassion, and selflessness, as he served his country in a time of war. 

Our world aches for peace and not conflict; understanding and not polarization; kindness and not indifference; amity and not malevolence. The human problem is that we “just can’t get along.” Whether we are battling bigotry or genocide, worldviews conflict. Pride and ego and the quest for power get in the way. My thoughts for the weekend will be on this famous quote (originally attributed to Edmund Burke) (4) “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Every day I need to look around me in my current circumstances to make sure I’m a force for good and for peace wherever I am in the world. Whether that means checking and rechecking my attitudes and behaviors; saying I'm sorry to someone I've offended; coming alongside someone being bullied; or disciplining myself to be more selfless.

Thank you to the global audience for reading my blogs (and to all who have served or are currently serving) - I know every nation has its own particular time to remember its fallen heroes. Regardless of when that is, as you read my reflections, wherever you are in the world, who can you commemorate today and how can you be a force for good?

(1) https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties

(2) https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-poppy-remembrance-symbol-veterans-day The Remembrance Day symbolism of the poppy started with a poem written by a World War I brigade surgeon who was struck by the sight of the red flowers growing on a ravaged battlefield.

(3) https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston

(4) https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/