Parakalein

Wars are not winnable.  Someone always loses his or her life and his or her spouse, parent, or child!

Where Love wins all war will end!

On this Memorial Day I have a dream.  Maybe it is more of a vision.  The nightmare of war dominates the landscape of humanity.  On the horizon we see the message of peace.  Even as the tsunami of war rises the hope for peace persists.  Memorial Day does not celebrate war it mourns it.  It honors those who sacrificed their lives for peace.

Memorial Day will one day be a historic decoration of the graves of those who did not die in vain in fact we will honor their their deaths pointed humanity, with the finger of oneness, to the fallacy of winning a war.

A day when peace will cover all nations and roll over all the world as a solemn and sacred solidarity of humanity leads us to peaceful resolutions of all disagreements.  Maturity of character and mutual respectfulness as characteristic will have replaced self-cenetered and self-serving competition between nations. Where healthy competition that enhances the well being of all members of earth meets the compassion of all towards all so that no nation has to give their young to the altar of war.  Cooperation and compassion rather than imposition and intrusion will be the hallmarks of that peaceful world.

On that day memorial day would be celebrated through out the whole world.  All will reflect on those who sacrificed their lives in wars who helped us to see once and for all the utter felicity and fallacy of war and the propellent of better ways to resolve conflict.  One day there will be "liberty and justice and peace for all people of earth".

The first Memorial Day in the USA was celebrated on May 30th, 1868.   General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic:

"The 30th of May, 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land, in this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit."

During the first celebration of Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped decorate the graves of 20,000 union and confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.

Weeping for soldiers on both sides of the war, united the nation in its sorrow. It was in this vein that Lincoln called on the nation. "With malice toward, and

The vision is that in all countries of earth, soldiers on both sides of all wars will be honored for their willingness to sacrifice, while all earth affirms the lesson of war.  In the end we all lose someone or something.  When we learn that wars can be justified, while no war is just we will make a step in the direction of peace.  Peace, not as the end of conflicts of disagreements but as an end to using any form of power or coercion to impose or intrude on another's freedom, as the way to sustain "liberty and justice for all"!

Amen!