Memorial Day 2013

What are we all doing on Memorial Day? I've been watching the Giants lose to the A's and reading a James Patterson novel. One of the characters was musing about his past and how after being injured in the British army and discharged, he had turned to the bottle trying to chase the demons away. How many of our homeless today are victims of PTSD or other disability and are not receiving appropriate treatment? I know this.....we have reduced the amount of money available for disabled veterans while we're sending gobs of money to other countries around the world. Why aren't we taking better care of our veterans?

Is it because we've become inured to war itself? I guess WWII was the last popular war in which our freedoms and our country itself were in danger. The Korean "police action" was not for our personal benefit, nor was Vietnam, nor was Bosnia. The first Gulf was perhaps not so much about oil, but to try to stabilize the Middle East. The invasion of Iraq was arguably based on faulty intelligence. Afghanistan was supposedly to capture/kill Osama, which after 9 years or so, we finally did. We don't even seem to publically protest the recent wars as was done during Vietnam.

It is impossible for me to feel the same emotions of those who have been in boots on the ground combat. I saw plenty of the havoc of war during my Navy service during Korea, but not the kind that our troops have seeing in the jungles and in the desert. Not the kind of death and destruction that comes from such things as IED's.

I think what I'm feeling right now is a mixture of anger and sorrow, anger at war itself, and deep, deep sorrow for those who have died (needlessly ?) . Should we celebrate today as we do Independence Day, or should we be thanking God for those who have served and praying for their safety.