The other Memorial Day...

Obviously, everyone knows what Memorial Day's about, but I can't help thinking about something we never hear about...

We honor the fallen soldiers on both Mem. Day and Veterans Day...

But what about the countless CIVILIANS slain in the various wars that have overrun the world? Don't they deserve at least equal time?

The soldiers deserve their honors for courage, for choosing to go into danger. I have no problem with that at all, even though the military life is not for me; I don't think I'd deal well with drill sergeants screaming at me throughout boot camp & can't just follow orders without opportunity to ask questions.

There are other ways to serve our fellow people, and many of the civilians who died did so without any similar recognition of their sacrifices or acknowledgement that they were, to put it bluntly, MURDERED. That's what "collateral damage" is, isn't it?

Why are their deaths ignored on a day that supposed to commemorate people who lost their lives in wars?

Here in America, we've been supremely lucky that comparatively few of our civilians have met such a fate -- a small number at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in WW2; some in the Civil War, WW1, and the various minor wars; some at the Alamo & in various other clashes in the Old West (although we can't forget the MANY Native civilians who were simply butchered in some of those places), etc. Many other countries have seen FAR more blood being shed by their non-military folks in various wars -- millions in Russia, Germany, China, Japan, UK, France, Vietnam, and too many other countries to count.

Of course, this is nothing new. Civilians have been killed, raped, enslaved, and tortured in wars throughout most of "civilized" history. But today's tendency for technology to make war seem "bloodless" and "sanitary" -- virtual, video game killing -- only means it will get worse until civilians and soldiers stand up together and demand an END to war.

How we go about DOING that is the problem.