As we mark Memorial Day, let’s keep in mind the battleground in our own nation | Opinion
We have a Memorial Day barbecue. We check the newspapers for the Memorial Day sales. We watch our favorite wartime movies like “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Longest Day” in regards to D-Day, and those are just a few of the activities that are typical for Americans to engage in on this sacred day.
I gaze at my father’s wartime medals from World War II, including his Purple Heart and his bronze medal, with pride and honor. We all realize that the supreme price of serving our nation and the cost of freedom often times leads to the tragic loss of our nation’s youth. It is an emotional scar that no one ever gets rid of during the course of a lifetime.
In the Vietnam War years, America lost 58,220 military members, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis.
America lost over 7,000 military members and contractors in the Post 9-11 years, which includes conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope that plenty of Americans are visiting their loved ones and the national memorials to the wars America participated in over the decades. This is an important and essential ritual and duty for all Americans to observe.
These men and women were trained in the use of weaponry and were professional in all their work for the nation. They deserve our respect for the land they loved and for their role in protecting us and keeping us safe. We cannot bring them back to life, and we should mourn their passing no matter how many years have gone by.
Yet, is there another battleground that I have forgotten?
I am thinking about the losses on the streets and in the homes of our own nation. They are not only soldiers but instead police and first responders, too. They are children in our nation’s schools. They are aunts and uncles, husbands and wives, grandparents and siblings.
Should we add another memorial day to the lives lost from gun violence? According to Pew survey statistics from 2021, America lost 48,830 people to gun violence. This is just in one year for which we have complete statistics. Are these people simply collateral damage? Shouldn’t America own these deaths on our watch whether it happened in a schoolyard, a mall or a house of worship?
Back in January, I visited the memorial to those killed by hatred at the federal office building in Oklahoma City. Children and parents were murdered by a deranged man who believed his unspeakable crime was justified.
Will the time come when Americans will face up to the reality that the greatest threat to peace and tranquility is inside our own borders?
Houses of worship have security guards, and parishioners bring guns when they worship God. If God could speak directly to us, what would God tell us? I’ve got to believe that, if God hears our prayers and watches our actions, then the Divine One must be shedding tears over how destructive we can be to each other. Clearly the nation is divided, and there is not evidence that we can all come together to enact legislation to ensure our public gathering places are safe.
We say the guns are not at fault. We claim it is a mental health issue when gunmen strike and that if we focus solving that problem we might make a difference. I am not of that opinion because the access to firearms is so overwhelmingly available that mental health strategies are simply not sufficient to solve gun violence.
Whether we are honoring the memories of our nation’s brave and courageous soldiers on this Memorial Day or the casualties of people who have no regard for human life, can we join together to mourn our cherished loved ones?
Can we have a memorial day to honor the nation’s fallen in a war of gun violence that afflicts every town, city and state in America. At least let us unite to respect American lives lost in a war that has no victory.
