It's Memorial Day weekend. Most people look at this as another "Monday Holiday" a three day weekend that begins Summer. There are sales and cookouts and gatherings that have nothing to do with the reason behind this "holiday"
It's not a holiday.
It is supposed to be a day when we take a moment in our busy lives to honor those who gave their lives in service to this country. Today, I am thinking about those who dies on the battlefield AND those who came back with pain so great they ended it. Call it PTSD, Battle fatigue or just haunted, these people who end their own lives are no less heroes than those who died fighting. Our country has abandoned them. Mental health care in this country is a joke. It is SO stigmatized, when I get a reminder call from my psychiatrist, they do not acknowledge the department they are calling from in the message. HOW, tell me HOW is THAT helpful, if you can't admit you are seeing a doctor to help you deal with whatever mental anguish you are suffering, because THEY can't acknowledge it. The message is on my CELL PHONE and I am the only one who gets the message, it's not like it would be broadcast anywhere. Yes I am dealing with a few issues and it is helping, so there it is.
I am thinking about the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, a poem that is often cited and probably the reason that VFW members wear poppies. Poppies grew in the field where the dead were buried. I read somewhere, and I really should check this out, that poppies only grow like that when the ground is disturbed. The poem calls on us, the living to continue the fight that they died fighting. I am not sure how I feel about that, but I get it. May they not have died in vain, but so often wars are fought for old men who can't agree, by young men and women who die for that disagreement. I notice that most of the time, the children and grandchildren of those old men are not part of the fighting force.
I looked up a study guide and the guide MISQUOTED the poem. I really should let them know it is:
"In Flanders Fields the poppies BLOW"
NOT
"In Flanders Field the poppies grow"
I think the image of the delicate poppies blowing in the wind between the crosses that mark the grave is much more impactful, don't you?
Today is not the day to say "thank you for your service" although that sentiment can and should be expressed every day in my opinion. Do not wish them "Happy Memorial Day" This is a day to honor and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
