Memorial Day

There is a small area in Saint Paul’s cathedral in London called the American chapel. There is a book in it with the names of every known American serviceman who was killed operating out of Britain in World War II – flyers mostly, around twenty eight thousand in all if I remember correctly from my visit . It does not include the many more Americans killed operating  on the continent after the invasions of Italy and France. It is an easy place to cry and a fine place to remember and honor the men who fought and won the war, so many of whom did not make it back, for  their valor, their dedication, their perseverance, their fidelity, and their  glorious success.  

We live in a time plagued by a traditional media culture of people  seemingly unwilling to or even incapable of appreciating such qualities. So at times such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day we get endless maudlin paeans to service people’s “sacrifice”. It is though they  know or feel they should know there is something worth honoring, but steeped in the notion that only victims and victimhood really count, they cannot say just what.

Well it isn’t sacrifice.  It would have been a greater and purer sacrifice for the men who served in the war  to just line up and let the enemies kill them without putting up any fight. The men and more recently women who fought  America’s wars did not do that. They did something quite different, and it is that we should be honoring, respecting, and talking about.