Say A Prayer

Memorial Day is coming. Most of America will take the day to do something completely unrelated to its origins- remembering our war dead. Why? Because the majority of us were born into an age of relative peace and prosperity. The numbers suggest very few people in the USA under the age of 65 personally know somebody who died in combat.

Since the end of the the Viet Nam conflict, history records 7599 US service deaths attributable to enemy action. Taken as a part of the 317,958,000 people counted in the 2020 census (less the 13,787,000 65 and over,) it comes out to .002%. That is 1 out of 41,842 people. Compare that to WWII. 291,550 US combat deaths from a population of 132,164,000, equals .22% or 1 out of 453 people. Go back to the Civil War. 214,900 died in combat on both sides out of a total population of 31,443,000, or .68% or 1 out of 146.

It isn’t hard to see why we’ve drifted away from what Memorial Day is supposed to be. It isn’t that people don’t care, they don’t have a personal connection.

This weekend, take some time to remember our war dead. Teach your children about it. Maybe visit the grave of a fallen service member, learn what you can about that person, and say a prayer for their soul. No matter what your feelings might be about the war in which they served, remember that person didn’t pick the fight. They were following the orders of our elected leaders, doing what they thought was in the best interest of the people back home.

For those of you who have lost a family member or friend, we mourn with you.

https://www.usmemorialday.org

https://www.nps.gov/articles/memorial-day-history.htm