In 1936, my father joined other demonstrators to lay down in front of Mack trucks in the streets of Detroit. He did this because scrap steel and iron was being shipped to Japan by corporate profiteers – the 1% of his day. At that time, he said that this steel would come back in the bodies of America’s sons, its brothers, its husbands and its fathers. And he was right. This August he will turn 100, having been born in 1912. And he despairs over what he sees as the loss of freedoms for which he fought, and placed his own life at risk.
In this country, more soldiers commit suicide than die in war. Why is this? Because on the front lines, they see that they are doing the bidding of oligarchs and plutocrats, and the visceral suffering of the families and civilians who are losing their lives, their livelihoods, and their homes as a result of wars fought for the profits of the plutocrats, for oil, and the payment of corporate debts.
He raised his children to care about people over profits. We were taught to leave the world a better place than we found it, and to expect to pull our own weight wherever we were, that all work is honorable and equal, and further, that honor requires keeping one’s word and standing up for the vulnerable.
For us, Memorial Day was spent not glorifying feats of arms, but remembering family members who had passed away, including in the Lincoln Brigade, the Battle of the Bulge, and in despair over the loss of civil liberties and the decline of this country towards fascism. He stood with, and for unions though he, himself ultimately forged his own small business. He had almost no turnover because he paid living wages, and supported families in caring for one another.
To those who hold power today, I say “Will you leave this world a better place? You will not take wealth or power with you when you leave this world.” To those who Occupy, and all activists, I counsel patience, courtesy with one another, and that no form of activism, whether making a peanut butter sandwich, or standing in front of a TV camera is any higher than another. We will only succeed in defending against fascism and plutocracy if we swallow pride, put aside petty squabbles and ideology, and commit to working together in “the long haul”.
If just half the money spent on war, i.e killing other people, was spent on healthcare, education, jobs, and taking care of those maimed and disfigured in the last war we’d be so much better off. Its time America had that conversation, when the Friedmens and Romneys of the world speak of our decline they weep for the erosion of our geopolitical might but honestly what has that might got for the middle class and working class in this country? If geopolitical decline means we are finally forced to nation build here at home than maybe its a blessing in disguise.
While I do feel too often Veterans are forgotten and given short shrift and I am humbled and awed by the sacrifices of our armed service men and women in the past and everyday, it is important to remember when we say ‘freedom isn’t free’ that many Americans fought for justice and liberty and making a better America. The civil rights marchers, Pullman strikers, suffragettes, settlement house workers, Bonus Army members, the Catholic worker movement, the Stonewall movement, and many others have fought to defend the integrity and justice implicit in the American dream from internal foes just as much as our soldiers have bravely repelled external foes. Very good to remember them as well today.