Let us pause and remember the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the military.
The older I get, the more I hate war.
I despise those who see war as a political tactic, those who stir up war talk to get votes.
Those who drop bombs and fire missiles to raise their poll numbers are contemptible.
There is evil in the world, for sure.
I saw it when I visited the “killing fields” in Cambodia last year.
There is a high school in Pnomh Penh that was turned into a torture camp by the Pol Pot forces.
The walls of the school are lined with photographs of hundreds and hundreds of men, women, and children, taken just before they were killed. Horrifying.
It is our challenge to be on the side of kindness, justice, charity, love, and forgiveness.
That may be hard. But in a time when so many nations have weapons of mass destruction, we have no choice.
“We must love one another or die.” (W.H. Auden).
He also wrote, in another version of the same poem, “We must love one another and die.”
Both statements are true.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for each and every point. Perfect pitch, again.
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yes
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That would make the wall 16 miles long.
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I hate seeing the amount of fear and hatred that seems to dominate the planet. On Memorial Day we are supposed to recognize the bravery of those who perished in war.
I’d prefer to recognize the bravery of those who do good for others. They are the ones who should be recognized. They mostly work in silence.
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Well stated Carole!
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Agree totally. The best way to honor the troops or those who have fallen in service to the country is by not engaging in wars of choice, avoidable wars such as Vietnam or Iraq, etc.
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And the vast majority of Americans have no clue as to all of the death and destruction caused by the “etc.”
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The Trouble with America’s Only Memorial to it’s Forever Wars (by Andrew Bacevich)
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-trouble-with-americas-only-memorial-to-its-mideast-wars/
“when you think about it, Marseilles (Illinois) is exactly the right place to situate the nation’s only existing memorial to its Middle Eastern wars. Where better, after all, to commemorate conflicts that Americans would like to ignore or forget than in a hollowing-out Midwestern town they never knew existed in the first place?”
// End quote
And of course, even the latter only includes the names of the Americans who have died.
If we were somehow able to get the names of all the rest of the people who have died because of our wars (in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Korea, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Nicaragua, etc etc), the memorial would stretch for several miles.
If one took the total dead at something around 5 million ( which is probably in the right ballpark, considering the best estimates of civilians who died from US bombing campaigns in SE Asia alone) and extended the Vietnam memorial wall which contains s 58,000 names and is 246 feet long one would end up with a wall about 4 miles long ( I will leave the details as an exercise for the reader. Just don’t use Common Core math, or you will undoubtedly get a negative number for the length of the wall)
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Don’t hold your breath as you read this. Breathe.
According to Global Research, the US Has Killed More than 20 million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
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PS Don’t use Sal Khan’s (Khan Academy) math either. He believes distance can be negative.
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“It is our challenge to be on the side of kindness, justice, charity, love, and forgiveness.”
Agree with all except the last-forgiveness.
I will not forgive those who promote and take part in death and destruction. . . nor forget. I may attempt to challenge them and change their thinking for future actions but cannot bring myself to forgive them for their past actions.
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Möbius History
Forgive and forget
Look forward, not back
An absolute bet
That past will retrack
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Wow, SomeDAM. GREAT title!
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Thank you for reminding me of Auden. When reminiscing my studies of him in my books, I then went to the internet and found what I thought was a good article about the poem written in 1939 – https://reasonandmeaning.com/2014/05/22/w-h-audens-we-must-love-one-another-or-die/
Diane, you and many who comment on this blog keep us front and centered on the importance of education. I’m glad, on this sad day of remembering soldiers, your post focuses on the meaning of our lives; to live, and grow, and learn until it’s over – all about education. Many thanks.
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So, so well said! Yes!
Some remembrances: Ambrose Bierce‘s “Chickamauga,” Thomas Hardy’s “Channel Firing” and “The Man He Killed,” Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est,” Siegfried Sasson’s “Dreamers,” Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
And this:
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Pretty profound, Bob. Tears as usual. Gratitude always.
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I love that Auden poem. I researched and discovered that he wrote those two different endings.
“We must love one another or die,”
And
“We must live one another and die.”
Both are true.
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More from Auden:
‘O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.’
This is from one of my favorite of his poems, “As I Walked Out One Evening,” which cna be found here: https://poets.org/poem/i-walked-out-one-evening
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Auden is one of my favorite poets.
I love “September 1, 1939.”
I love “In Memory of W.B. Yeats.”
A selection (it is copyrighted but you can google the whole poem):
Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
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Diane, had you NOT posted what you posted today, most likely, no one would recall nor be introduced to Auden. You are a gem, in so many ways!
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I love the literature that was once common knowledge.
I have published three anthologies: The American Reader, The English Reader, and The Democracy Reader.
Each of them is rich in the poems and songs that students used to know.
Auden is a favorite of mine.
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The Real Common Core
Common poems
And common lit
Common tomes
And common crit
Common door*
And common wall**
Common core
That binds us all
*Doors, by Carl Sandburg
**Mending Wall, by Robert Frost
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I taught many children that were survivors of war and other acts of violence. Many years ago I had a newcomer from Cambodia that fixated on my picture file. He pulled guns, knives and helicopters out and acted out the violence he had seen. I finally had to put the picture file out of sight as he would get upset and have an epileptic seizure. I had a Sri Lankan student that described how she hid in the bushes with her grandmother as her mother, father and brother were murdered. I also had several Haitians that recounted some of the horrors of the Tonton Macoute under Duvalier. Many Salvadorian students witnessed the murders of relatives at the hands of drug gangs. These children were all survivors of trauma.
War is hell! Children are often its powerless victims. I wish I could say we learned a lesson, but I know we haven’t. My heart goes out to children caught in the middle of conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Africa and elsewhere.
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In modern warfare, inevitably, innocent children–babies, toddlers, die. Politicians, when they debate committing to war or to warlike activity, like to use sanitized terms like “intervention,” as in “the intervention in Iraq.” But make no mistake about it, they are committing to a course of action in which children will die. So, the proper way to think about this is, “Is there some end, here, that is worth THAT?” And the answer, if the question is posed thus realistically, will almost always be a resounding No. To think differently about this is psychopathic.
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I so agree with what retired teacher and Bob Shepherd are saying! This is where my heart bleeds the most about war.
It boils down to a lot of variables. But at the bottom I am beginning to see a bit about how & why people “believe” so much in their defenses about war (overlooking all the dead children and horrific truths of human behavior and thus).
Most recently, I became interested in a book titled “Notes and Vaporings”, by Walter Le Croy. I came across another but hadn’t read in his collection called “Simple Truths” by Kent Nerburn. And of course there is Stephen Hawking’s “BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE BIG QUESTIONS”.
And of course there is the new et al.
It seems like if we believe in what we believe, we will fight to get it. Or at least stand up and say, write, type, march, campaign, learn coding, master the internet…… find a way to try to make a difference in what we see as wrong.
Everyone here is open and aware of CHILDREN – and the importance of their culture and EDUCATION.
What can we say to them that will change their mind (hearts)? How will we say it? “WHERES BILL GATES AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM WHEN IT COMES TO CHILDREN, EDUCATION, AND WARS?”
So many people see so many things on this internet.
I think we are doing a good job. Because it’s something we believe in.
But it’s Memorial Day, and I AM sad for all those soldiers who believed it was the “right” thing to do. Plus, in my era, it was VIETNAM from 1968 on where I saw and lived the information of what was going on. And I know it’s still going on now.
When will we ever learn? I like this one. Seeger got in trouble with the law – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2SIIeqy34
But that’ OUR job. To teach.
And we take it seriously, and sometimes a sense of humor.
Accolades of praise for Diane to give us this compiled learning site (as is especially Bob Shepherd’s) with the opportunity to say something.
Onward Soldiers (and that we are)!!!!
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The status quo, the billionaire class, weaponizes everything–mass media, science, food, education, war. All are weapons to keep power, gain more power, reduce the power of those who threaten the established system. Sure, there are very evil people and evil groups and evil governments to watch out for, a whole bunch of them in our own society as well as abroad. Since the defeat of Nazism in WWII, Washington’s superpower role in the world has not been used to install more justice, equality, freedom, peace or security. Our government, sadly, remains the singularity of the world vis a vis installing and sustaining expensive despots who guarantee cheap labor, a very long history of overthrowing and invading, CIA/marine politics. I say “our government” and not “our nation” because the two are not synonymous. A large bloc of Americans has always opposed the weaponizing of war to extend empire and economic domination. This Memorial Day is for them, us, too.
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Sadly, war is often about profit as well. Why do we tolerate Saudi Arabia’s devastating behavior? Military contractors like Erik Prince try to drum up some intervention scheme so they can make a lot of money from any military action taken.
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Guess where Eric Prince followed the money.
“Blackwater Mercenary Prince Has a New $1 Trillion Chinese Boss”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-10/blackwater-mercenary-prince-has-a-new-1-trillion-chinese-boss
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It’s clear Trump would never do such a thing!
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Whatever Auden eventually thought of it, his original “September 1, 1939” remains my favorite poem. As regards “We must love one another and die,” I’m reminded that when Keynes was once asked to forecast a long-term trend, he replied, “In the long run we are all dead.” For hundreds of millions of soldiers and ten times this many noncombatants, the long run was much too short. Thank you, Diane, for helping me remember them today, and for recommitting myself to doing what I can to interrupt the miseducative study of war.
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Yes. Bill. I’m front and centered again. Right on comment. We all thank Diane.
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Yes, Diane. Thank you. So important to think about as Trump considers the wag the dog diversion.
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This quote originates from his address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy (19 June 1879); but slightly varying accounts of this speech have been published:
“I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.
“Suppress it!
“You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!”
William Tecumseh Sherman
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There is an interesting look into one of the great American warriors. Thanks for reminding us. It was also Sherman who was in charge of the demise of the buffalo as a method for forcing the plains Indians onto the reservations. Perhaps he thought the plains Indian was the purveyor of constant strife, much the same way James Curtis saw the avoidance of chaos as the motivational force behind Amdrew Jackson. Surely he shared the European Zeitgeist of his day, that feeling of racial superiority so desperately mourned by modern extremists. No matter why he felt that way, it is fascinating to look into the mind of the man whose ripping apart of the Piedmont and costal plain of the country so defined the civil war that almost ended our democratic experiment.
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Do you think Sherman started to regret the horrors he caused as he aged and grew closer to the end?
For instance, I read that one of LBJ’s Secret Service agents said that after that president left the White House, he was depressed most of the time and spent a lot of time praying and asking for forgiveness. According to that member of LBJ’s Secret Service protective detail, LBJ wanted to die to escape the guilt he felt for escalating the Vietnam War and causing so many deaths and so much suffering.
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Once, years ago, I was downstairs watching “Braveheart,” late at night. Onscreen, people were slashing one another with claymores. My daughter, who was perhaps three or four, came wandering in, having awakened from her sleep. She glanced at the screen and then at me and said, “Daddy, why don’t they just play a nice game of checkers?” Why, indeed.
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One little round of “Scott’s which ha wi Wallace Bled” and the checker game would turn into a free for all.
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Thanks for reminding us of what this day should be about.
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My initial impulse was to post the most popular song of the period before we entered World War I and everyone became patriotic.
It was titled “I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.”
It is an anti-war song, spoken by a mother.
Google it.
I knew it would make a lot of people angry, as if I didn’t care about those who died.
As a mother, that song resonates with me.
“I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier, to kill some other mother’s darling boy…”
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We now have a grandson. He was born last November and the first time I held him at our daughter’s place, she was in another room with her husband and I was alone with the “kid” as I think of him.
I decided to start early and had this one-sided conversation with him about not going into the military and avoid war if possible. Instead, I told him to go to college and follow in his parents’ footsteps and not mine.
I’ll be repeating that message through the years as he is growing up.
Even when I was teaching if the topic came up, I advised my students that if they wanted to join the military and no one could talk them out of it, join the Airforce as a first choice or the Navy. Avoid the Marines and the Army. Wars are hell and no one wins even when there is a winner.
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This year it is hard for me to remember anyone but my old friend Earl Davis. Earl and I sang tenor together in the choir in the Methodist church in Sparta, NC. He had been wounded on Omaha Beach. He passed a decade or so ago, and his wife died at the age of 103 about a month ago. These were remarkable people, but since Memorial Day is for the soldiers, his story seems appropriate.
Earl grew up poor in the mountains. His family was in the poor house for a time, a place reserved for those who had practically nothing. The Great Depression had little effect on him, so poor he was in his youth. Earl taught me how to mow hay with a scythe one time. It was how they did it in his youth.
He worked in the CCC on the Blue Ridge Parkway, then enlisted in the army when the war came. It was on June 6 that he found himself on one of those puke boats they used to land on the beaches (most of us recall the image from private Ryan). They were told to hit the water as quick as they could and get to the beach. They were specifically told not to help each other. He was in charge of a gas alarm, expecting Hitler to use poison gas. It was a big wooded thing that twirled like a party favor and produced a loud clacking that would alert his comrades to don their gas masks. His other hand contained the M1.
They hit the water as planned amid shelling and a hail of machine gun fire. He was about knee deep in the surf when he took a piece of shrapnel in his side and crumpled into the water. He felt a hand grab his clothes and pull him the rest of the way to the surf where the unknown disobeyed of orders turned him over on his side, tucking his arm over the wound. That was his war. He was too wounded to recover and join his unit.
Earl told me that story countless times. I never heard him tell it without wondering who saved his life, risking his own.
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Roy, a moving story.
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Here in Middle Tennessee where I grew up, a lot of the soldiers who fought in World War II were veterans of the Third Army, which was involved in the Battle of the Buldge. One of my near neighbors had been there and was a longtime member of the American Legion over in town. He also took on the responsibility of seeing to the Bell Buckle graveyard, so when my father passed, he came by the house and I took him to the graveyard. This was perfunctory, I knew my father’s plot beside his parents and so did Mr Sam.
On our way home he told me a war story. He was directed after the Battle of the Buldge to take a message to another commander up the road a way. “Go up to the crossroad by the Cemetary and turn right,” the man told him. To Mr Sam, the cemetery was a small family thing that almost everybody had.
“How will I know where the Cemetary is.” The young private asked.
“You’ll know,” he replied. “You will always know.”
When the puzzled private reached the mass grave where thousands killed were being placed in hastily dug trenches and covered by bulldozers, he understood what he was being told.
I was in the middle of reaching for an image of he story when he pulled me from this reverie with a statement that was the only political thing I ever heard from the lips of Mr. Sam: “that was something every politician ought to have to see before he votes a war,” he said with a finality that stopped the conversation. In the pause hat followed, the silence cemented a bond between Mr. Sam and myself that has lasted all these years. I often wondered how many people he had told that story to, or whether he allowed me the privilege of the few.
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Roy Turrentine: Great story.
“that was something every politician ought to have to see before he votes a war,” HOW TRUE!!!
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If you want to see the brave, look at those who can forgive. If you want to see the heroic, look at those who can love in return for hatred.
~Bhagavad Gita
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We all agree that war is hell. Can we agree that wars do not accomplish any positive agenda?
Our current government (Bolton and crew) are trying to start a new war in either Venezuela, Iran or Korea. This is to go along with the 800 military bases, the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan the war in Yemen (supported by the US) and covert operations in various places in Africa that we don’t know much about. We have to be vigilant and complain more than we did in 2003. Trump does not like negative attention. There is no possibility of influencing Bolton and Pompeo.
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Memorial to a friend (my dog Honey, who was killed by a coyote on Memorial Day, 2019)
A friend has died
Memorial Day
I can not hide
My tears today
A friend who gave
Her loyal licks
A friend I saved
From fleas and ticks
A friend indeed
And loyal true
Uncommon breed
And loving too
To friend of mine
I owe a debt
With years of time
I won’t forget
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Wonderful! Thank you.
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No one detests war more than I do. I saw it tear my generation apart in the 1960s. I have seen it up close and personal in Iraq/Afghanistan.
“We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will surely perish as fools”
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Nobel Peace Prize winner.
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