Memorial Day thoughts 2025

It's Memorial Day in the United States today. 

My heart and mind is with those who died in the line of duty serving the United States in the military. On days like this they say "don't make it political". They say this because they are only thinking about the bodies. The politicians and brands want to pull the troops out and use their bodies as props. Associating your brand to a wall of uniforms pumps up that masculine energy and that strong prideful fantasy, the gladiator thirst for blood that has been passed down through the centuries. Using bodies as props, bodies as entertainment, bodies as chess pieces on a board, the NPC of the game. 

But they aren't NPCs. They are humans with families and people who love them. People who miss them and wanted them to come home and play the role that they did in their community's lives. People from which the brands and politicians ceaselessly extract blood while detesting their very existence. They demand the wall of uniforms on holidays, but what about the children left behind when their parent is sacrificed? How quickly they will pull away their school lunch, their food subsidies and healthcare. That is an act of violence. Cruel and unusual to starve a child and fund a military parade. The heartless political manipulation of people's bodies. It's a horrific atrocity that we have become to familiar with, way too comfortable. 

Each person being honored today was loved by somebody. Someone misses them and wishes they were home. They would want their buddies who remain behind to have the resources and care they need and earned doing the work of running towards danger while others were running away and bringing the fallen back home to be laid to rest, honored and remembered. These are not commodities they are human beings. Let's remember that today as many enjoy the pools, beaches, and barbeques, the extra day off. Remember the sacrifice for the freedoms that some of us so easily give away.