Today I'm taking time to reflect on and honor those who have given up their lives in honor of our country. I always knew it was a day to remember the fallen, but I didn't know until today (when I read an NPR article) that it originated with the Civil War and honoring those who lost their lives for the North and the South. Now it's brought about some of my thoughts on diversity and how I try to keep a diverse group of friends because there's always multiple ways of looking at things. I remember my dad telling me when I was a teenager that he liked how I had different sets of friends, and he encouraged that.
There's been press lately about the removal of Confederate statues, and I hear from both sides. Some think that "it's disrespecting history" and I can understand their feeling that way. But I can also understand descendants of slaves not liking the "glorification of slave owners and enablers." To them, that would be like a Jew having to see Adolf Hitler statues and Nazi flags all over, and I don't see Germany doing that. Last year, I went to New Orleans and went to the WWII Museum. My pastor warned us that there would be pictures of anti-Asian sentiment, but I think most of us knew this since we're all aware of the war, Japanese internments, etc. So my personal opinion is that these Confederate statues should be in a museum for historical purposes, but not necessarily out in public for glorification.
A couple days ago, I was talking with an elderly veteran friend about the SF 49'ers and he remarked, "That'll show Colin Kaepernick not to stand for our national anthem." Now I'll admit that my initial reaction when seeing the headline was a face-palm... but then as I read more about Kaep's thoughts, I could understand it. I have several friends and family members who can attest to being harrassed just because they were black driving through a "nice neighborhood," etc. So I just told my elderly friend that, "Well, I think his teammates liked him, but he just wasn't playing well enough to keep around. As far as the anthem goes, I'm more bothered by people being harrassed and killed unnecessarily than I am about people not standing for the anthem." Personally, I still stand for the anthem, but I won't judge anybody who doesn't. To me, there are people from all ethnicities and cultures who have given their lives to this country, so I will honor them... Especially the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and others who were considered second-class citizens (or worse) during the times they fought.
I watched an interview with James Mattis on Face the Nation last night and was very impressed. It does bring me comfort to know that he is second in command of our military as I think he can probably explain things to 45 to try and keep our country and world safe. He's also a political Independent and I wish he would run for President. People think that me being a liberal means I don't have respect for our military or law enforcement, but I have a great respect for both. I have numerous friends and family members that are in the military and law enforcement. A lot of articles will highlight Mattis' quote about keeping everybody else awake at night, but here are my favorite quotes from the interview on the lack of political unity in America:
"... it takes people, I believe, with a fundamental respect for one another, with a fundamental friendliness toward one another that I worry is starting to slip away in our country. We still have it in the military. It's a diverse force, it's a force that can work together under the worst conditions.
And I-- I just hope we can find our way back to engaging with one another, arguing strongly with one another, and then going down and having a root beer together or something and-- and having a good laugh about it as we work together for the best interests of the next generation of Americans who are going to inherit this country."
This is what the fallen heroes were fighting for, and I hope/pray that we can get back there.
No comments:
Post a Comment