May 26, 2003

• Memorial Monday

  
  

  Summer begins today.  Oh, I know, it's not summer by the cosmological calendar until solstice on June 21, but for those of us who live by the seasons of beaurocracy, today's the day.  American's observe Memorial Day by firing upthe grill, getting outside for our first summer weekend and with speeches in cemeteries honoring the soldiers who fought and died in service to our nation.

  
  

  Interesting to me is that the holiday began after the Civil War and the first observances made a point of honoring both the Federal and the Rebel fallen.  When I began to read accounts of the Civil War, one of the most striking aspects of the story viewed through the letters, journals and reports of the men and women who lived through it is the way that each side regarded the other.  In the climate of 2003 where the leaders of our nation use language to paint a picture of evil personified when speaking of our enemies, it is disconcerting to read the words of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Ulysses Grant.  They describe each other in terms that make it clear they each had a high regard for their opposing counterpart.  They almost sound like friends.

  
  

  At the first public occasion of celebration after the end of the Civil War, Lincoln requested that the band play Dixie in honor of the men who fought to a bitter end for the other side.  I can't imagine our current President requesting that our current enemies be honored in this climate.  I'm ashamed when I hear people villified for expressing their opposition to administration policies.  The Great Liberator, Lincoln, invited his critics to the White House and heard them out, sometimes even moderating his policies and plans based on their arguments.  Today I hear people saying that those who speak out against war are commiting treasonous acts of aiding and comforting our enemies. 

  
  

  Maybe we need to stop and consider who and what our enemies are.  Lincoln said that the struggle of the Civil War was a test of the proposition that Liberty and Equality could provide a stable and enduring foundation.  When I see our lawmakers reducing liberty with their so-called Patriot Act, or using draconian measures which they euphemistically title Homeland Security, I wonder what Lincoln would think about their decisions.  

  
  

  For almost two years we have imprisoned without trial, legal representation or POW status hundreds of men captured in the war we waged against Al Quaida in Afghanistan.  In the recent attempt to persuade the Supreme Court to hear arguments that these men should at least be given access to attorney's for representation to the courts, the key argument offered by our government in defense of the continued denial of this Constitutional right was that these men were captured in civilian clothes.  Since they didn't have uniforms they aren't officially soldiers, they aren't officially prisoners of war.  When I heard that the Supreme Court Justices accepted this and refused to hear the case, I was ashamed. 

  
  

  If those men aren't "soldiers" what are they?  As soldiers the Geneva Conventions would establish their rights to due process and representation.  As civilians, our own Constitution demands that they be given due process and representation.  Legally, they must be one or the other.  How can we claim to be upholding Liberty, and the proposition that "all men are created equal" while we treat even one man as less than a man?

  
  

  On this Memorial Day, I hope that we will remember.  I hope that we will all stop and think about what it means to practice liberty and justice for all.  I hope that we will not dishonor the spilled blood Lincoln spoke of.  He challenged us to rise and consecrate ourselves in the task of advancing the cause for which they died... "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth."  

  • 9:06 am
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