Even as a pacifist and, more to the point, a veteran of far too many hot, long parades in my marching band uniform, saxophone heavy on my neck, I think Memorial Day is a nice and important holiday.
Frank Rich’s column in The New York Times (yes, I’m a junkie, in case it isn’t obvious already.) was one of his best in my memory. He writes about Lincoln Center’s production of South Pacific, a musical written just after war time which neither explicitly condemns nor endorses war, and how it is fitting to our time and our war. Read it, I implore you.
I was so pleased to hear about the passage of the new GI Bill, which will help pay for the college educations of returning soldiers. Despite the fact that the bill included additional war funding to a government that long ago should have been cut off like a straying heir, ensuring the education of our veterans is one of the most patriotic things we can do. Both of my father’s parents were educated under the GI Bill after they returned from World War II, my late grandpa at Boston College, and my grandma at a junior college. She later graduated from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts the same year that her second son, my uncle, finished school. She loves to tell how she, as a WAV, taught morse code to General deGaulle’s son.
This is so cheesy and overdone, but let’s take time this Memorial Day to remember our servicemen, and let’s take action so that we don’t have to lose anymore in this unnecessary war.