Are You Worth Fighting For?

I really don't believe that this country pays enough attention to Memorial Day. Little me couldn't remember the difference between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, and bigger me has the sinking suspicion that a large percentage of the population still has that problem. This is really, really bad.

When I think about war, I think of two sides, like two sides of a coin:

1) As a character in "Black Hawk Down" said, "When that first bullet goes past your head, politics goes right out the window." I am certainly not qualified to talk about the fog of war, but have heard that it is dirt and sweat and homesickness and blood and not enough sleep and pain and "is it worth it" and stretches of excruciating boredom punctuated by horrific excitement; ie, not glamorous. Hell, in fact.
2) On the other hand, there are heroes. Like that of the two soldiers who begged for permission to be deployed, fully aware that there was no one to help or back them up, to the sight of a fallen helicopter. They didn't even know if anyone had survived the crash, but when the arrived, they dragged the injured pilot out and fought for their lives against pretty much the entire city. The two soldiers, Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart, died protecting the pilot, who survived since he lasted long enough for the leader to take him hostage, and both received the Medal of Honor post-mortem. It is possible to die for your friends. People do.

That being said, what I think about most is not the war, but the aftermath.

What hits me is that I am what they fought for. I am the country that is "the land of the free and home of the brave." I am the girl who has not been killed or raped because someone won a battle. I am the one who is alive instead of another.

I am the only one who can make it worth it.

During the visit to hell "Saving Private Ryan," a dying captain mutters to the last Ryan, "earn this...earn it..." and at the very end, Ryan is crying over the graves, begging his wife to assure him, "Tell me I led a good life. Tell me I'm a good man."

For me, Memorial Day is not about remembering a list of casualties. It is about remembering my own role in the fight, and promising to fulfill it as well as the guy who kept shooting. It is about thanking the girls who did what I could not by doing what they could not. It is about becoming worth fighting for.

People need to be hit hard with what they have to live up to. Don't morn the dead, see what you can do to be the living.

Happy Memorial Day.

~Maria