Meaning of Memorial Day lost in today's climate

How many college seniors today, do you think, know the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day?

“They both have something to do with the military?”

Exactly my point. For most, not all, but most Americans, Memorial Day has devolved into a three-day weekend — backyard barbecues and retail sales.

The solemnity tied to this Monday’s holiday has been largely forgotten.

Sad but true. If we want to honor the dead, we have to look at why they died and ask the question, “was it really worth it?”

In September 1796, approximately 230 years ago, President George Washington published his Farewell Address. Having lived through so much upheaval and carnage, his parting advice to his fellow Americans was an urgent plea for defense and restraint moving forward.

If only.

George Told it Straight

Washington laid down a clear, foundational rule for our future survival, never in a million years guessing that our so-called leaders would manage to run up our national debt to approximately $40 trillion and start so many needless wars in his wake.

From our first president’s Farewell Address: “Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.”

What a concept. Cultivate peace.

How can the military-industrial complex and the politicians they own make any money from that stupid idea?

George Washington, without a Truth Social account, argued that a free America should maintain a stance of universal friendship, warning that a nation which indulges in “permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others” essentially becomes a slave to endless wars, dragging itself into conflicts where no real common interest exists outside the obvious.

Washington asked a question 230 years ago that still resonates today: “Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity?”

We didn’t listen. Had the U.S., our politicians, strictly adhered to Washington’s blueprint of being a friend to all but an ally to none, our history — and our veterans cemeteries — would look vastly different.

“What about Pearl Harbor?” There is enough evidence now in the public domain to show how FDR shut off Japan’s access to oil, knowing it would attack us in response, which would allow him to get into WWII and go help his buddy, Churchill, who was begging us to get into yet another European war. It worked.

Below is the chronological cost of our nation’s departures from Washington’s advice, marked by the number of American service members who paid the ultimate price:

# The War of 1812 (1812– 1815): 2,260 deaths

# The Mexican-American War (1846–1848): 13,283 deaths

# The U.S. Civil War (1861– 1865): ~498,332 deaths

# The Spanish-American War (1898): 2,446 deaths

# World War I (1917–1918): 116,516 deaths

# World War II (1941– 1945): 405,399 deaths

# The Korean War (1950– 1953): 36,574 deaths

# The Vietnam War (1964– 1975): 58,220 deaths

# The Gulf War / Desert Storm (1990–1991): 383 deaths

# Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2010): 4,431 deaths

# Operation Enduring Freedom / Afghanistan (2001– 2014): 2,349 deaths

America could use a leader like Washington, but do you see any? Because I sure don’t.