In Memoriam

"The dead soldier's silence sings out national anthem." ~Aaron Kilbourn

For the last ten days, the Riverside National Cemetery has been the scene of a roll call of hero's. 148,000 names have been recited by 300 volunteers working 24 hours a day in 15 minute shifts. This amazing show of patriotism and respect has made me think about war. It's causes, its effects, and what we should learn from it. And I think I have come to a realization. That is, I believe that all of our efforts to memorialize our honored dead have fallen short.

Lincoln had it right when he said, "We can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So the question remains, if our marble monuments and the little flags planted every memorial day by the graves of thousands aren't enough, if they aren't a fitting tribute to our heroes then what is? What are we to do? I think our biggest problem is one of inactivity. We are quick to erect a memorial to our fallen but we are slow to do what is much harder. We are slow to truly change our ways.

We built a Vietnam memorial, only to go after another invisible enemy in the deserts of Iraq, we erect an World War Two monument and then form bonds and became allies with dictators from Egypt to Panama and everywhere in between. We construct memorials at Antietam, Gettysburg, and for President Lincoln, but today we are as divided as ever by our party ties and personal ideologies.

If we don't do more in the memory of our dead, if we don't take bold steps toward fixing our problems then can we really say we deserve them? Was their service and sacrifice wasted on a populous that doesn't care? I hope that possibility is as frightening to those who read this as it is to me, and I hope we do something about it.

"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudging for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart."

~Albert Einstein