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Memorial Day
31 May 2021
Today's national holiday honors those who died while serving in the U.S. armed forces, protecting us. Since we launched Photo Corners, we have set the day aside with a commemoration of our own, as the sidebar shows.
Spring at the U.S. Capitol. From Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress.
We suspect the fallen would be astonished to revisit us in 2021.
The America they died defending did not countenance a losing presidential candidate urging a crowd to attack the capitol as Congress was certifying the election of his opponent.
Nor did it embrace a wave of state legislation designed solely to disenfranchise select fellow citizens.
Just to name two features of the current political landscape we suspect they would have found beyond the pale. In other words, un-American.
So the usual solemnity of the day is tempered with a bleak sadness as we consider what has happened to the country they died defending.
No terrorist organization, no invading force could do the damage to our country that we have done ourselves. We cannot honor those who gave their life to defend this country without turning away from this American suicide.
The future, with a president who has demonstrated a refereshing competence and intelligent empathy in his first few months in office, can be bright. But we have to pour out the Kool-Aid laced with cyanide first.