Maddenation
Memorial Day
It is raining as I get up this morning; the kind of rain that will likely last all day. It has been rainy all weekend, ruining the traditional start of summer. Bad for the picnickers, the shore crowd, the back yard barbecues. Maybe good for those who might want to reflect on the reason we created this day, which used to be called Decoration Day.
It was first observed on May 30, 1868 to honor those who died during the Civil War. President Lyndon Johnson officially declared Waterloo N.Y. the birthplace of Memorial Day in May 1966, but the beginnings of this day are no doubt characterized by “independent redundancies.” The Boy Scouts have a tradition of putting flags on the graves of veterans on or shortly before Memorial Day. Patrick may remember one of these trips to the cemetery (in East Hanover) when we found graves of “Maddens” and “Mooneys” right next to each other and thought it was kind of eerie.
We used to have two parades in our township, one for Whippany and one for Cedar Knolls, but this year they eliminated the Cedar Knolls parade for lack of interest. I have never been too attentive to these public displays of patriotism or remembrance, an attitude I picked up from my parents. It’s not that I’m not thankful to those who “paid the ultimate price,” it’s just that I’ve never been sure about what we “the living” owe them.
To be sure, we all owe a great debt to my father’s generation, Tom Brockaw’s “Greatest Generation,” for what they accomplished during WWII. Even today’s pervasive cynicism has done little to tarnish the image of those who “made the world safe for democracy.” One can argue about such issues as the firebombing of Dresden or use of the Atomic bomb, but the fact remains that we had little choice about joining our allies to end this war and preserve our freedom. Only the immensity of “9/11” had the impact to replace “Pearl Harbor” in our contemporary lexicon.
But what of other wars, other “police actions”? Are they all undertaken with such a clear conscience? Can we honor their dead without necessarily honoring the leaders and motives that got us into them? I think we can, but maybe we need to be a little cautious. Yes, we are all indebted to all those who serve our country, whether or not they die in the cause. As for the politicians and statesmen who declare our wars, they must come under the close scrutiny of history.
But what about my earlier question? What do we owe our fallen comrades? Here’s what I think. We owe them our constant vigilance, to ensure that our free society endures. We owe them an adherence to the democratic principles that our constitution guarantees, no matter how they are twisted by self-serving politicians. We owe them an enduring promise that we will always and everywhere accept the personal responsibility that accompanies our freedom. Only then can we truly honor the dead.
Dad • Observations • 05/26/03 • 4 comments
Comments
Dan • 05/28/03 • 1:17 AM:it is a bit saddening about the town parades stuff. i remember marching in them when i was in cub and boy scouts, but i don’t think i ever went to one as a spectator.
i really never understood the good i’d be doing if i were to go watch a memorial day parade. i never gave too much thought about how i could “honor those who fought for my country” either. i did sometimes wonder how sitting at a parade was showing gratitude. i don’t know.
dad is right about what we owe those who fallen comrades. at least, i can’t think of anything better to do, nothing that would be as productive.
Patrick • 05/29/03 • 10:39 AM:Since this is a place for half-formed thoughts, I’ll mention that when I went to Buenos Aires with the Fulbright commission for a weeklong sort of conference, I got to thinking about ceremony. It was sparked by seeing a couple of soldiers dressed really goofily and learning that they were called the “Patricios” which, you will no doubt recognize, is my name! Anyway, the day was hot, and these guys were dressed up in furry hats and Beefeater uniforms, and I was thinking how ridiculous that was to make these guys (to pay these guys) to stand there at the door of some building or other “guarding” it with muskets and bayonets.
And it is ridiculous, and probably too expensive, but then I got to thinking that ceremony, even practically useless ceremony, serves some sort of unifying or culturally defining function. Maybe most people don’t get it, or appreciate it (I’m not sure I do yet), but some part of me thinks it’s important to have parades and stiff guards in anachronistic clothes at the tomb of the unknown or at Buckingham Palace. Sure, you could replace those guys with undercover police with machine guns in a van equipped with all the latest surveillance equiment, but that wouldn’t be as fun. Maybe 100 years from now, you’ll have “secret agent” kind of guys ceremonially guarding the Pink House in Buenos Aires, but probably not. I hope not.
And I guess I better try to go to more parades.
Patrick • 06/01/03 • 12:18 PM:I should also mention that on that trip to the cemetery we didn’t just see one pair of headstones that said “Madden” and “Mooney,” but we saw several, and I don’t think that “Madden” and “Mooney” were ever next to each other (though they might have been). In fact, at every place we stopped (we had to drive from one region to another, then we got out and placed flags on graves) there was either a “Madden” or a “Mooney” buried very nearby. The first place we noticed, early in the day, had a “Madden” with a “Lepore” right next to it, which was spooky because, as you know, our neighbors then were the Lepores. Then I think it alternated during the day: the next stop was a “Mooney,” then a “Madden,” and so forth, probably at least 5 or 6 places. Of course, once we found the first and second ones, we allowed our radius to get larger (the headstone didn’t have to be right next to the car; it could be a couple of rows away), but basically, that’s what happened. I’m not making this up.
Dad • 11/25/07 • 10:20 PM:I’m semi-randomly going through old entries tonight, and this one popped up. One is tempted to ask, “What are the odds?” when pondering Patrick’s comment about the cemetary names. It always seems like the odds are very low that such series of coincidences would happen, but the fact that it DID happen generally means the odds weren’t that low. Except that sometimes a one-in-a-billion event does happen, and it really is exceptional. Or is it? How many “events” comprise a life? How many should be “exceptional” by just random chance? Can you change those odds by living a more daring life? Probably. But for most of us, we create more of the exception in our retelling of the story than might have been there to begin with. I remember the Mooney-Madden experience, but didn’t pay as much attention to it as Patrick (and Jay and Paul). I wonder if some of the “wonder” would be drained away if we had a sterile, scientific account of the experience available. This tends to be what happens when skeptics try to reproduce psychic events.
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