Memorial Day

In between painting the front porch and heading to the Depot to prepare for more holiday fun I paused for a moment's reflection on this day. As is often the case, James Carrol has given powerful expression to the necessary distinction between soldiers and the wars they fight. Memorial Day is as good a time as any to think about the narratives that frame the war and opposition to it. Honor, duty and courage are the dominant themes of the story we are told by those in power leading this war. There are other themes and other stories -- stories of nonviolence, of justice, of peacemaking. We must tell them again and again and again until we are sick of telling them for only then might they be heard above the martial drumbeat of war.