Memorial
In an attempt to catch up on some much-needed sleep and pay some attention to much-needed domestic affairs, I left my work computer at work this weekend. I did some photo printing and almost made it all the way through a post about how, for the first time in a long time, I understand the whole concept of “weekend”. Such concepts are incomprehensible to academics, many of whom have a weekend that extends through the warmest three months of the earth’s rotation around the sun; a perk I sadly couldn’t negotiate while being recruited at my current employer.
I like to take some time between writing a post and actually posting it. downtime afforded me the opportunity to meander downtown Santa Cruz, known also as Freakshow Central or, at this time of year, Skin Row. As expected, Santa Cruz was packed to the gills with tourists and locals alike on bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, unicycles, strollers, walkers, electric strollers and walkers, and the occasional pair of legs, all strolling in and out of retail outlets and restaurants. All of this falls perfectly in line with what one would expect to see in a small beach town on a long weekend.
Then a sign hung in the door of a business closed for the holiday caught me off guard. The sign read, “Closed on Monday. Happy Memorial Day!”
Of course many stories on public radio this weekend focused on soldiers, and one of the stories heard today, on my way downtown, was called War Letters—letters written home from American soliders deployed abroad in conflicts from the Revolutionary War to the latest Gulf War. The last letter was written by a soldier in the Gulf War (I don’t recall which one), conveying a story about coming across and burying the headless corpse of a Canadian soldier. The closing statements of the letter offered some grand remarks about the insanity of war, but really—after the headless corpse, such statements were not necessary.
I’m neither pro-war nor anti-military, but that’s irrelevant. I’d like to think I have some very, very, very vague intellectual sense of the fact that in war, people on all sides of a conflict die.
The sign read, “Happy Memorial Day!” I’d offer some cynical comments on the asymmetry of the sign’s wording and what today’s holiday is supposed to commemorate, but really, such statements are not necessary.
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7 responses
Comment posted at 09:59 on Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Funny, I always thought it was called Happy War Movie Day.
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Comment posted at 12:13 on Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Greg,
Did you catch Platoon on Spike TV this weekend….Watching War Movies gives a new meaning to Memorial Day
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Comment posted at 21:06 on Wednesday, June 01, 2005
It was not the current war in Iraq. Canadians are in Qatar and Kuwait in a support role, but they made quite a point about not sending troops to participate in combat roles.
Perhaps you are puzzled and are wondering what this has to do with the jist of the post, but I know a few people who are currently waylayed in that part of the world, so I try and keep apprised of the situation. If nothing else, it helps me beat back my revulsion at the abject stupidity of those who would see war as an entertainment — there exists no difference between that and the morbid fascination some have with car accidents; to wit, there is a good chance they have never been in one.
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Comment posted at 22:46 on Thursday, June 02, 2005
Hink,
I would join you in chastizing those who see war solely as entertainment. I don’t think you quite got the sarcasm in my comment…
Please continue to be revulsed about war…like Plato said, and as very aptly quoted in the movie “Black Hawk Down”, “Only the dead have seen the end of war…”
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Comment posted at 14:14 on Sunday, June 05, 2005
Oh, I got it, I was just feeling bit pointy at the moment. Apologies for sounding so grave. 
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Comment posted at 09:16 on Monday, June 06, 2005
Oh dear. I hope my post wasn’t interpreted as an attempt to portray military holidays as entertainment (I don’t know how it could be, but stranger things have happened). The use of war as entertainment wasn’t really the point of my post, though.
During my trip to the Philippines a few years ago, I felt something similar to the sentiment I described in the above post. So much of modern Filipino culture is marked by memories of war—and exudes it in ways that places like Europe don’t. Even within Manila’s city limits, one sees the bombed out remains of old Manila and forts, hears and reads stories about MacArthur and Japanese and Korean atrocities, visits the war memorials, and can’t help but notice almost all the buildings are relatively new.
When you realize that 50 years later, the sum total of all that destruction and chaos is basically the freedom for both sides of a conflict to offer McDonald’s happy meals, get a Starbucks latte on every street corner, and watch NBA on television, it’s extremely difficult not to wonder, “This is what people fought and died for?” Why do we celebrate by being happy and by shopping-till-we-drop? Is this concept of “freedom” being batted about in political rhetoric merely product placement?
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Comment posted at 13:02 on Monday, June 06, 2005
War in the movies is not always entertainment, in my mind…I could harldy describe myself as entertained after watching “Black Hawk Down” or “Platoon” or “Full Metal Jacket”. I think a well made war movie really disturbs the mind into realising the futility of concept of war…
Pro-American war movies are entertainment…where the SEALS are the “Best” in the world…the USAF “kicks Russian Ass” etc etc…
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