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Heroes and Memorial Day




Hero is a word often used nowadays, but in this extraordinary year there is a convergence of historic events giving many thoughtful people pause for reflection.

I am writing this on Memorial Day in the USA, so it is natural to think about those warriors who died in service to a nation whose defenders made a significant difference in two global wars in the first half of the last century. Cemeteries in the US and on foreign soil are eternal reminders of the sacrifice of young Americans. We do well to honor them and their families.

How we honor those who died fighting for us says as much about us and our values as it does about those who died. I hold these Americans in high esteem because of their tremendous contribution to ending the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime on my family and nation. So, this Memorial Day takes on more importance as we celebrated the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day just a couple of weeks ago (8 May).

It is the very horror of total war that raises the bar on what it means to be a hero.

Heroes take the place of others in fighting a powerful enemy bent on killing us or utterly destroying our way of life. The acts of dead warriors become meaningful because they died that we might live. Any flaws in their character are redeemed in the act of dying for us. Any less than honorable motives are forgotten.

Dead warriors paid the price.
Their final act is an act of redemption.
They died in our stead.
Their lives are forever sacred.

It’s true that the war dead paid the price of freedom. But I think we know deep down that it wasn’t just freedom at stake in World Wars I and II, it was life itself. The numbers are in-your-face staggering. In WW I some 20 plus million died. And in World War II, more than 80 million died. The warriors that lost their lives to end such destruction shine as heroes.

In a troubling irony, total war brings out the best and worst of humanity.

We’ll have time to think about these heroes again. The 75th anniversary of Victory in Japan Day (VJ) is 15 August. And the Japanese leaders signed the surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri 2 September. Of course, Veterans or Armistice Day is only a few more days more on 11 November.

Giving a horrible context to all this reflection on war are the twin epidemics about 100 years apart—pandemics of 1918 and 2020. The invasion of Covid19 has killed about 350 thousand people in the world. Healthcare workers have died saving the lives of many in hospitals around the world.

I think it’s that confrontation of death for the sake of others’ lives that defines a hero.







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