My Memorial Day post.

I remember reading in a magazine article, years and years ago (maybe in the Quaker publication Friends' Journal), that the observance we now know as "Memorial Day" began when a grieving mother of a Union soldier met the grieving mother of a Confederate soldier as they were both decorating their sons' graves. And they realized that they each had more in common, in their love and grief, than they ever had in differences during the war.

So it saddens me that Memorial Day observances today are all "Go, Go, America! Yay! America against the world!"

Oh, and the soldiers in Iraq? They may be brave and noble, but not all of them are "dying for their country." Many are dying because joining the army was the only chance they had to pay for college, or to simply get a living wage.

Memorial Day started out of the broken hearts of two loving mothers. They never meant for it to be a day for presidents and generals to beat their chests...