Memorial Day

 Memorial Day

As the nation takes a special day to honor those who gave their lives in defense of our country, we should all take that time to pay tribute to their sacrifice. It is not a time for celebration, it is a day for remembrance. We too often get lulled into a “holiday” mode as many of us get that extra day off to take advantage of a three-day weekend. There is nothing wrong with this as long as we acknowledge the real meaning of this day.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, between 1775 and 1991, the US military recorded 651,031 battle deaths and 539,054 non-combat deaths, totaling 1.19 million fatalities. During World War II, on one day alone, D-Day, June 6, 1944, a total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed. This figure includes 2,501 Americans and 1,913 of our Allies.

The primary Allied powers in WWII were the UK, Soviet Union, US, China, France, Australia, and Canada. All signatories of the Declaration of the United Nations were considered “Allies”. Other smaller participants on our side included Cuba, Costa Rica, and Czechoslovakia.

While we pay tribute this Monday, May 26, 2025, we need to remember not just those who died, but why they died. They died to protect our freedoms. In the case of wartime, except for our Civil War, those threats were external national forces. In WWII, the threats came from dictators in Germany and Italy, and one general in Japan. In the end, Adolph Hitler committed suicide, Benito Mussolini was hanged, and General Hideki Tojo failed in his suicide attempt but was later hanged. A fitting end to all who would seek to rule by force as autocrats.

Memorial Day would also be a time to reflect on the current threat to our democratic way of life and the freedoms we enjoy. This threat is from within. A single individual, with the help of co-conspirators, is trying to convert our democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship. To do this, as is common in most dictatorships, he is chipping away at our freedoms using fear and intimidation. He is using all the tools in the authoritarian playbook to achieve his ends.

By Trump’s own words, Memorial Day could be described as Suckers Day. It was a little over six years ago that Trump cancelled a trip to Aisne-Marne cemetery in France calling the soldiers buried there, “losers” and “suckers”. He also didn’t want to make the trip because rain had been predicted and he feared his immaculate hair might suffer. How those who crawled through the mud and blood of D-Day would feel knowing a future Commander-in Chief would not honor their sacrifices because he might get wet, can only be imagined. Captain Bone Spurs also said John McCain was not a war hero but was a loser and that he liked “people that weren’t captured.”

For three generations, Trump’s paternal line has neither offered nor performed any military service, either voluntarily or through the draft. In 1885, Trump’s paternal grandfather fled his homeland to avoid military conscription. At one meeting with his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, Trump expressed puzzlement at why anyone would sacrifice their life for his country. He asked, “what’s in it for them?”

So, on this Memorial Day, let’s honor our fallen soldiers. Let’s remember our wounded and maimed veterans. Let's pay tribute to their sacrifices. Let us be ever vigilant of our freedoms and the threats both external, and now from within. Let us resist this tyrant until we can add him to the scrapheap of Worst Presidents. He can join James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison, and Warren G. Harding as another American president who will live in infamy.

[Attached photo of a McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle was taken by me at an airshow at the Homestead Air Base in 2010.]