I have arrived, again, at this point in the year. I’ve learned a little bit more. Laughed a little bit more. Shared disappointments and heartache a little bit more. Today I will not write a year in review but mark time around one of my favorite holidays: Memorial Day.
In the past, I have written about the burden borne by the families of our military warriors. I have described the sacrifices and fear, the humor and joy felt by those men and women in the dark moments of service. I have testified to my own uncertainty as to how I should respond when people thank me for volunteering. I have expressed my enduring gratitude for veterans who have done so much more than I.
But, this year I decided to focus my Memorial Day message on the beloved half-sister of War. Throughout time in every human society, in every religious order, in every neighborhood, in every remote base where the sentry walks his post, in every military academy where the cadet prepares for war, the desire is all the same: Peace.
Shortly after 9/11, a master sergeant told us: “There are two types of fools: the one who wants to go to war, and the one who is not prepared to do so.” Sobering and profound, these words echo in my brain whenever I contemplate what they mean. Any reasonable person can see the need for national defense, but only the deranged want war. Ask any combat veteran, “Which is better: war or peace?”
But, lofty desires do not mean we can have it. One organization I have had the great pleasure to work with this year strives every day for it. The United States Institute of Peace believes it possible to live in a world without violent conflict. Of course, ethnic hatreds and competition for scarce resources abound, and people all over the world hurt and kill one another for a zillion reasons. However, the USIP keeps trying everyday to teach and train, to send people out and bring people together in order to stop war.
And why? Because the World War II veterans knew what it meant to fight, so when they returned from Europe and Asia, they set to work to build a peace so no one else would have to see what they saw, do what they did.
Sure, we do not live in a world of peace, tranquility, and harmony. As the Roman historian and senator Tacitus wrote, “They make a desert; they call it peace.” Nevertheless, Memorial Day is a time to reflect on what it takes to live in peace and to know graveyards throughout the world are filled with men and women who wanted to live in just this way.
I snapped the picture above at the Virginia War Memorial. You will see the names of those who fell in World War II and the counties from which they came. You will also see the buildings of commerce and government, where people work to make our free society run. Take just a moment, and in the corner of your mind, you may just hear the parent or the widow or the orphan weeping over the price we pay to live in peace.
Thank you for reading.
#peace #MemorialDay @United States Institute of Peace
