My Sunday Thought for Sunday, Memorial Day - 2015

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.

-- Wikipedia, "Memorial Day"

Wars ranked by total number of U.S. military deaths

Rank	War	Years	Deaths	Deaths per Population
1	American Civil War	1861–1865	750,000	2.385% (1860)
2	World War II	1941–1945	405,399	0.307% (1940)
3	World War I	1917–1918	116,516	0.110% (1920)
4	Vietnam War	1961–1975	58,209	0.030% (1970)
5	Korean War	1950–1953	54,246	0.020% (1950)
6	American Revolutionary War	1775–1783	25,000	0.899% (1780)
7	War of 1812	1812–1815	15,000	0.207% (1810)
8	Mexican–American War	1846–1848	13,283	0.057% (1850)
9	War on Terror	2001–present	6,717	0.002% (2010)
10	Philippine–American War	1899–1902	4,196	0.006% (1900)

-- Wikipedia, "United States Military Casualties of War

Sobering numbers?  We pitch such a fit over the number of young people we willingly sacrifice during war.  But the number really isn't that significant, is it?  I mean, in the greater scheme of things, our country has sacrificed very little to secure our own freedom and the freedom of others throughout the world.  I find it interesting that the highest casualties came from a war between ourselves, the Civil War (see chart), when we sacrificed more American lives fighting brother against brother than in all other conflicts combined.

Why is peace so elusive for humans?  Is it part of our genetic makeup to destroy ourselves in the quest to not destroy ourselves?  The "civilized" world expounds ideas of lofty morality in our efforts to protect the freedom and liberty of the downtrodden and the weak.  The world developed the League of Nations in 1920 to maintain world peace.  The world developed the United Nations in 1945 to maintain world peace and prevent another catastrophic world war.  Yet, since 1920 the world seems incapable of securing a peace.  Is world leadership so inept that we can't even put together a group to secure our peace?  It probably doesn't help when the very countries threatening world peace have a seat on the U.N. Security Council; when the very countries violating human rights have a seat on councils overseeing human rights violations.  We have no peace in our world because we allow politics and money to define our path, when the very act of war keeps politicians in office and the industrial machine moving.  Is it any wonder the morality of war seems blurred?

"In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity.  Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond.  I occasionally think how quickly our differences, worldwide, would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."

-- Ronald Reagan, U.S. President, speech to the U.N. General Assembly, 1987 

I continue to respect Ronald Reagan, but I think his dream of an alien invasion uniting this planet would fall short once the conflict ended.  I have much faith in mankind, that we will fall right back into the same old habit of killing each other to try and gratify our insatiable selfishness, greed, and lust for power.  It is what we do, and how sad it that?

We will continue to try and fight the good fight, if there is such an animal.  We will continue to try and protect the innocent while we secure world commodities and maintain our status as world "peacekeepers."  And we will continue to stack our brave young people, like cordwood, on the funeral pyre of those that went before.  This is, also, what we do.

We fight on foreign shores in the great hope we never have to fight on our own.  We protect the innocent of other countries in an effort to protect the innocent in our own.  We fight, and we die, for ideals much greater than ourselves.  There are those that take the freedoms, fought and died for, for granted.  They use the freedoms secured to besmirch the memory of those that died securing those same freedoms.  I would bring President Reagan's words to our own shores:

"In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of our country.  Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond.  I occasionally think how quickly our differences, in the United States, would vanish if we were facing an overwhelming threat landing on our own beaches."

Although we would ultimately win any conflict, unfortunately my faith in mankind would prove itself out.  We would fall right back into the same old infighting the minute hostilities ended.  It is, after all, what freedom allows us to do.  Again, how sad it that?

God bless all of our men and women who volunteer to fight and die in the endless quest for an elusive world peace and, for better or worse, God bless these United State of America!

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Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.

Frank Anthony Villari (aka, Pastor Tony)

Pastor Tony is founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance and author/editor of the Congregation's official blog site, "The Path."