All the partying and festivities around the country today make me sick.
- We’ve lost Memorial Day. For many Americans it’s the celebratory the start of Summer, since we’ve forgotten nature or science, not realizing there’s something called the Solstice later in June. There should not be goddamned celebratory thing about today.
- We’ve lost Memorial Day because we’ve forgotten the sacrifices of our fallen, and replaced it with faux patriotism. The plastic patriotism of the obligatory flag in every front yard, the obligatory Support our Troops stickers on every SUV bumper, the obligatory American flag pin on the lapel of every politician. The same citizens who proudly paste those bumper stickers vote for legislators who defund Veteran’s Affairs, healthcare for our military and care for their families. Defund it while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
- The only war money goes to the military industrial complex, which one of our old Presidents--a General and a Republican no less--once warned us about.
- I used to administer healthcare for the military--it’s obscenely underfunded, and we administrators constantly broke the rules just so the sick kids of soldiers fighting in the Middle East could get prescriptions. No lie.
- I used to be the son of a WWII veteran who did survive and didn’t need any kind of memorializing at the end of May. Survived, sure. The horrors he witnessed, the friends he saw murdered and the guilt he carried twisted him for this rest of his life. Till this very day the mental healthcare we budget for our veterans is a sick joke. It takes too much tax money!
- So unless you vote for legislators who will actually tax you to pay for veterans and the families of our fallen, and not funnel more money into maw of the military complex, please don’t let me hear you blather ‘I Support our Troops’ while you flip your burgers on the grill and wave a flag. Because you’re either dreadfully ignorant, or a hypocrite.