Memorial Day

It was a time of great and exalting excitement.

The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.

It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way. ...

-- The War Prayer by Mark Twain (via)

Comments

[not_scottbot]

'...daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms....'

And some people thought this gay thing is just a modern deviancy. Oh no, gay men in uniform is an old American tradition. Especially swishing bell bottoms, in the navy.

Sorry - someone had to.

[Robin Z]

It strikes me that no other author of my knowledge could have written that story, with that conclusion.

(I wish I could weep.)

[Pope Easier Rhino I]

"...in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism..."

And some people thought this women in the military thing was just a modern deviancy. Oh no, breasts were a-poppin'... nope, can't do it. It didn't have to be done at all. Sorry. Pretend this post was a well-reasoned defence of something instead.

[kodiak]

Strangely this reminded me of the Lightfoot song "The Patriot's Dream".

The train pulled away on that glorious night,
The drummer got drunk and the bugler got tight
While the boys in the back sang a song of good cheer
While riding off to glory in the spring of their years.

The patriot's dream still lives on today
It makes mothers weep and it makes lovers pray.
Let's drink to the men who got caught by the chill
Of the patriotic fever and the cold steel that kills.

Sure it's not about silencing dissent, but it always makes me think of WWI and the Canadian stories of that time (insert plug for Pierre Burton, possibly for Vimy, here). The one that always got me was of the young women who went about shaming young men into joining up. Apparently the method of choice was to give them white feathers in public displays (implying they were 'doves' and not manlymen)... back when war was considered glorious and the consequences weren't nearly so reaching or inhumane (there's a difference between a saber or cannonball, and a gas attack or razor wire)

I totally support Fred's point which is to say that the point of any day remembering those who fought in war should be supported, and there isn't greater support than to say 'never again' to a senseless, meaningless, unneccesary one.

[kodiak]

er, to clarify a little... the wars *prior* to WWI were far less reaching, devestating (to people and property) and inhumane. WWI was the first real "mechanized" war, and that was part of the problem, the girls didn't realize what devestation they were sending the men to.

(I'm an ameteur historian, so take this all with a grain of salt, and please correct me if you feel I'm in error)

[Jeff]

Shorter John McCain today: "Anyone who disagrees with where Bush-and-I sends young men to die doesn't 'support the troops'".

and

"We must stay in Iraq until we find a definition of "success" that we can claim to have achieved."

But no GI Bill, suckahs!

[hapax]

I'm no Aussie, and it's a month too late, but I find myself again and again singing this song to express my ambivalent feelings about Memorial Day and the military.

[Karen]

I think the highest and best use of Memorial Day is to work to prevent the meaningless deaths of more soldiers and sailors.

And McCain had the company of Texas' junior senator in his "no" vote on Webb's GI bill. I intend to do everything in my power to see that Mr. Cornyn gets to start enjoying his federal government retirement in 2009. Go Noriega!!

Oh, and on a much less serious note, what horrible things does it say about me that after I read Twain's bit in the original post, "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" started running on endless loop through my head?

[Hawker Hurricane]

The Last of the Light Brigade

There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were *only* shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.

They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!

They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes
The thing on Balaclava that the kiddies at school recites."

They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.

They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.

The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said,
"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.
An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;
For we're all of us off to the workhouse, an, we thought we'd call an' tell.

"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write
A sort of 'to be continued' or 'see next page' o' the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."

The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn."
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called *Shame*.

O thirty million English who babble of England's might,
Behold! there are twenty heroes who have no food tonight!;
Our *children's* children are lisping to "honor the charge they made-"
And we leave to the street and the workhouse the last of the Light Brigade!

-- Rudyard Kipling, 1891

Some things don't change, even though they should.

[New In Wonderland]

I am circulating this poem as widely as I can this Memorial Day: http://www.andreagibson.org/poems/poems_foreli.html

[Reynard]

Posted by kodiak: (...)there's a difference between a saber or cannonball, and a gas attack or razor wire(...)

(...)er, to clarify a little... the wars *prior* to WWI were far less reaching, devestating (to people and property) and inhumane.

With all due respect, dead is dead. Also, wars -- and even battles -- prior to WWI could take an appalling toll on human life: The first ten battles on this list took place prior to that conflict. Also, I must question how *any* war could be called "humane" as compared to any other war. Granted, there may be random instances of "humaneness" in a given war; but, as a whole, war tends to be one gigantic act of group-inhumanity.

"War is cruelty, you cannot refine it." - Gen. William T. Sherman

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it." - Robert E. Lee

[dr ngo]

From

Spoon River Anthology
by
Edgar Lee Masters

(This book, published in 1915, was a collection of poems "by" the inhabitants of the graveyard in mythic Spoon River.)

Harry Wilmans

I WAS just turned twenty-one,
And Henry Phipps, the Sunday-school superintendent,
Made a speech in Bindle's Opera House.
"The honor of the flag must be upheld," he said,
"Whether it be assailed by a barbarous tribe of Tagalogs
Or the greatest power in Europe."
And we cheered and cheered the speech and the flag he waved
As he spoke.
And I went to the war in spite of my father,
And followed the flag till I saw it raised
By our camp in a rice field near Manila,
And all of us cheered and cheered it.
But there were flies and poisonous things;
And there was the deadly water,
And the cruel heat,
And the sickening, putrid food;
And the smell of the trench just back of the tents
Where the soldiers went to empty themselves;
And there were the whores who followed us, full of syphilis;
And beastly acts between ourselves or alone,
With bullying, hatred, degradation among us,
And days of loathing and nights of fear
To the hour of the charge through the steaming swamp,
Following the flag,
Till I fell with a scream, shot through the guts.
Now there's a flag over me in
Spoon River. A flag!
A flag!

[Ryan]

was a good day to sell lotsa tickets to Indiana Jones

[Tonio]

Speaking of silencing dissent, have any of you read "Bill of Wrongs" by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose?

[konrad_arflane]

Reynard:

The wikipedia entry you link to doesn't really support your point. When you say that "The first ten battles on this list took place prior to [WWI]", you fail to mention (or notice) that the list in question only includes "classical formation battles", and consequently excludes 20th century warfare by definition. The same WP entry includes a list of "major operations", and while it's a bit of comparing apples to oranges, the death tolls for the those are generally significantly higher.

However, the idea that pre-WWI wars were less completely devastating is, at the very least, a rule with some rather severe exceptions - the Thirty Years' War comes to mind.

[cjmr]

Ironic that the same person who wrote Last of Light Brigade in 1891 was one of the biggest war hawks in England at the beginning of WWI, traveling around the country giving the kinds of speeches that inspired/shamed the young men into joining up...

[Tonio]

Another example, this one involving religion for selling cars.

[lonespark]

The poem that New in Wonderland posted is good and awful, and awfully good.

The only part I can get my brain on at all is...it says no senator's sons. I know Jim Webb's son is/was there. Maybe a few others. We hope it would make a difference if they were all there. And judging on Webb, it would.

[MikhailBorg]

The less geeky of the Slacktivists here may not be aware of what the human race accomplished this weekend. We built a machine which we flung into space last year; a machine which traveled a hundred million miles to precisely hit a target that moves at fifteen miles per second. We fine-tuned the machine and our aim so well that it landed gently on that foreign soil, and is even now sending pictures and weather data from the surface of another planet.

And just to make the point, a camera we'd previously put in orbit around the same planet caught pictures of our machine heading down.

Killing another human is a simple thing, really. We've been good at it for thousands and thousands of years, to the point that it now takes only a finger twitch to do so. This thing was hard. Everything had to go right the first time, and yet we did it. And there's hope that we'll do more and harder things like it soon.

When we remember the people who died for us over the decades, we should keep in mind that they didn't die only so we could continue to enjoy the good life. They died so that we, or our descendants, would have the opportunity to attempt the truly hard trials that await us... so that we might one day realize that slaughtering each other is childish when there's so much else to do.

To those who served, and those who died, to give us all another chance at a future: I thank you.

[bellatrys]

Typepad ate my last comment as spam, so I have taken out some of the links and reposted it in hopes of making it through:

Lest any think that 19th century (and earlier) battles were kinder, gentler, cleaner places to be:

Here is one rather interesting discourse on the Battle of Waterloo by someone who travelled it as a humanist-historian at less than the remove between us today and Normandy, only 46 years after it happened - and while he was visiting and writing about it, a war was raging across the Atlantic in which so heavy a fusillade might be laid down in the course of a battle that trees after it looked like they had been chainsawed, where bullets might stick together and fuse from opposite sides of the field, and where injuries so horrible were still survivable thanks to modern medicine that the field of plastic surgery was galvanized into new invention, afterwards, but that didn't stop painkiller addiction from running rampant among the survivors. Maybe that's romantic, but it doesn't feel that way to me.

(Just read till you get to the well of corpses, at least.)

[bellatrys]

Also, given that there were over 60,000 casualties in the course of the day* at Waterloo, not including several thousands of horses, and with an estimate of 150 lbs per person average, which may be too low, and based on cargo shipping averages of frozen meat with regards to cubic feet per ton, that comes to - at a conservative estimate - an entire football field of carrion packed 8' deep, not including horses.

Imagine the worst car accident, worst serial killing you have seen on TV (I hope not IRL, tho' of course emergency personnel will have had to), how much blood and other organic materials are spread out in such cases - think about what small cleanups of blood etc are like around the house - now multiply that by a swimming pool the size of a football field.

On a summer day.

"War was kind," in the old romantic days of sabre and cannon, indeed.

*More than the US lost in the entire VN War, altho' not by any means more than the Vietnamese did.

[Dash]

Excellent post, MikhailBorg. Thank you for the reminder.

[Monkay]

Pretend this post was a well-reasoned defence of something instead.
I won't.

[Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little]

We fine-tuned the machine and our aim so well that it landed gently on that foreign soil, and is even now sending pictures and weather data from the surface of another planet.

If I understand correctly, and if we're talking about the same machine, it also Twitters.

(This off-topic observation comes to you from the U.S. town where Memorial Day is celebrated by nearly 54,000 people completing a 10K race at more than a mile above sea level. OK, yes, and military flyovers after the race is over, but that's not the bit that grabs my attention, not when I live two blocks from the starting line.)

[Consumer Unit 5012]

Nicole--you're in Boulder, too? Pity about the weather this year.

[Ursula L]

Oh dear. One of the sidebar ads is for "John McCain for President."

Have they completely missed the nature of this blog?

[Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little]

Consumer Unit 5012: Yes indeedy. And the weather actually made me regret not participating this year; for once, I wouldn't have been burning up in the sun, but instead refreshed by the cool and the light drizzle. (The really hard rain didn't start until the evening.) When I do participate, I'm definitely a walk-jogger with very little endurance. I take about an hour and a half, and then I go into the stadium to see if I can find anyone I know, and then I leave before the show because patrio-religious exercises make me extremely uncomfortable.

I live very close to the starting line, so I got to listen to the music selection (Yay! No repeats this year!) and the trivia contests (Yes, we know Old Chicago is sponsoring the event, big whoop) and to watch the warm-up jogs and Port-a-Potty lines on my street from my window. I'm constantly amazed every year by the difference in the view over a space of three hours.

Any other Slactivas / Slactivists / (blog community collective noun of choice) in the area? I actually woke up from a dream this morning of the blog having a more physical presence, in that my being the first to comment on a thread was envisioned as arriving at an actual house/office-space where Fred asked me if I wanted anything to drink (I suggested a shot of single-malt scotch just to be funny, then I said a Coke would be nice) and to pass the word along to the rest of the commenters when they arrived that they should feel free to grab a soft drink out the fridge.

[Tonio]

Have they completely missed the nature of this blog?

The banner ads are probably generated by algorithms that scan the blog content for prominent topics. I imagine an experiment where a particular thread focuses on topics that are ridiculously incongruent to see what the algorithm produces.

[Hawker Hurricane]

Tonio: I was a participant in just such a experiment. Yes, by repeating certain words you could get certain ads. "Asian girl date" got us a mail order bride site.

[MikhailBorg]

If I understand correctly, and if we're talking about the same machine, it also Twitters.

That's the one. We now have another picture from the orbiting camera showing the lander on the ground.

No matter how stained with sin our race may be, our determination to do awesome things nevertheless astounds me. I've always thought that the Tower of Babel story specifically was a human legend, not a Godly one - I mean, what could the Creator Of The Universe really have to fear from a big mud-brick ziggurat? The more wonders we discover in the universe, the clearer it becomes that these are things man IS meant to know - or at least attempt to know.

[Dash]

Here's another version of the "War Prayer." It's problematic, in a way, since it perpetuates the "homeless veteran" stereotype. OTOH, it is very reminiscent (minus the big screens and preacher energy) of a graduation I attended at a Christian high school shortly after the start of the current Iraq War. The sentiments expressed could with equal fit have been addressed to Thor or Mars as to the Christian God.

[arghous]

Any other Slactivas / Slactivists / (blog community collective noun of choice) in the area?

Yes and howdy from the southwest part of town. I slept through the thing quite nicely, thank you.

[Dina]

This never fails to get to me. Thank you!