Leisure and Remembrance

by Julia Buckley

On this Memorial Day weekend, reflection seems to be in order, especially because the weather lends itself to some back yard resting. Lorraine Hansbury said, "Never be afraid to sit awhile and think," and I'm with her. I'm going to dare to sit and daydream and possibly eat some ice cream while I do it.

However, a part of the day's reflection always leads me to the reason for the day--the memorials that are in order for those who serve the country--enlisted people both living and dead.

I always like to ponder the words of Abraham Lincoln, whose graceful prose showed the proper respect for both the dignity of service and the pain of loss. In his second inaugural address (1865), he said:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

Happy Memorial Day to all veterans and their families, and to all American troops and the people who wait for them at home.

In Tribute to All Soldiers

by Julia Buckley
My sister was in the Navy for twenty years; she recently retired. At one point she was on a plane bound for Iraq, but because the plane developed engine trouble, her unit was held back and another was sent instead. I considered her a hero for even being on the plane; so you can imagine my admiration for the people who are there now--young people being put in harm's way for the sake of their nation.

I don't understand war and I never will, but I do understand courage and devotion. I remember reading THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, in which the young protagonist wonders if he will be brave in battle. None of us knows that for sure about ourselves, I suppose, but those young soldiers know it: they have to be brave every day, and their battles are more complex than the Civil War deaths--confusions of smoke and musket fire.

Stephen Crane never actually fought in a war, although he covered war as a journalist. But Wilfred Owen fought, and his assessment of war, after being a soldier, was that it wasn't what it had been proclaimed to be. In one of the most famous war poems ever written, Dulce Et Decorum Est, Owen exposed the truth about war from the inside. Owen was killed in France on November 4, 1918, one week before the Armistice.

I've heard that many soldiers in Iraq have turned to writing, as well, as a way of expressing all that they have been through. The NEA recently asked former soldiers to tell their stories, and the result was Operation Homecoming.

These are stories worth reading, because they reflect the experiences of people who were asked to be a nation's heroes. For those who have fallen, it will fall on others to tell their stories.