Memorial Day is the most contradictory holiday in These United States. We can really feel it this year because of the added pressure release from the Covid pandemic numbers decreasing due to the vaccination boost: people are emerging into the public in huge swarms & the desires to party to kickoff summer get underway.
Which isn’t a bad thing, situated in the calendar at the end of the school year and in the month of longer days leading toward the Summer Solstice, Memorial Day heralds the feelgood summer vibes that we all want.
Amidst the buzz of relaxation, I do wish there were a bit more gratefulness about the significance of Memorial Day honoring the sacrifices of those who died in service to our nation. Since I’m a pacifist, I propose an expansion into recognizing those who died for our nation who were not soldiers, especially since the origins of Memorial Day began in South Carolina in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, when Black folks freed from slavery honored the Union soldiers who perished in the awful Confederate prisoner-of-war facility in Andersonville, SC when they came together to re-bury the dead and honor their sacrifice.
The end of May also marks the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1920, which stands as the largest & most violent acts of racist terrorism against a Black community, though there is a long list of these atrocities to consider.
I think it’s fair to meditate & honor the citizens of our nation who died for the sake of state violence, whether they were military or civilians who had their lives snuffed out by violence sanctioned by the state.
Maybe it doesn’t strike some of you that Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Philandro Castile should be remembered like a military veteran cut down too young in the hostilities of war, but as for me... I can no longer see the difference.
Freedom is not merely a personal state of being. Freedom takes a community effort together to safeguard the health, safety, the dreams & hopes, and the responsibility we owe to one another to insist on equality before the law and the liberty to run our lives in a loving manner, lifting all of us up!
I wish you all the joys and the solemnity of Memorial Day, 2021.
Chris DeBarr - friend, chef and a man who has a way with words
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