Thoughts on Memorial Day

 In the United States, May is Military Appreciation Month, and today is Memorial Day.

It strikes me as odd when I hear or see the phrase “Happy Memorial Day.” Today is a solemn day of remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedom.

At least two of my ancestors died in service to our country. Alonzo Cushing died at Gettysburg, aged 22, fighting for the Union Army during the American Civil War. His brother, Howard, died aged 32 in 1871 during the so-called Indian Wars.

Alonzo Cushing kept fighting after shell fragments pierced his shoulder and then his abdomen. Then a bullet fatally struck his skull. His is today buried at West Point and was posthumously awarded the medal of honor by President Barack Obama.

Despite repeated attempts from some circles over the past 160 years, there are very few mainstream Americans who would characterize the secession of the Southern states and the creation of the Confederate States of America as anything more than it was: an attempt to keep the bestial practice known as slavery legal within their borders. While we Americans think of our nation as defining Freedom, slavery was ended in Britain 30 years before it was here. British abolition required no bloodshed – it was done with the stroke of a pen after the people’s representatives discussed the matter and decided the right decision was to end the practice. America’s abolition of slavery cost over 655,000 Union and Confederate soldiers their lives. That figure does not include the many civilian casualties. Few would argue that the cause for which Alonzo Cushing fought was unjust.

Howard Cushing was a classmate of George Armstrong Custer at West Point. During the Indian Wars in what was then the Arizona territory, he was tasked with pursuing Apache Native Americans in the Whetstone Mountains. Cushing and his troops were ambushed, and Cushing was killed, along with several comrades.

Some will argue that the term Native American should not be applied because, technically, no humans are indigenous to the American continents. But those who some call Indians were here at least 10,000 years before Columbus mistakenly thought he’d arrived in India. If any group deserves the term Native, it is they who were here first. Few would argue that the treatment of the original Americans by various colonial powers and then the United States government ranks as one of the worst atrocities in human history. From the initial colonization of this continent to 1890, the Native American population dropped by 58%, and their territory was reduced so much that the total of reservations today occupies only about 4% of the land here – much of it undesirable desert.

Some would say that while Alonzo Cushing deserves to be honored, Howard Cushing should be forgotten or even vilified – just as many Americans who served in Vietnam were spat upon when they returned to our shores. But our nation’s Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and now Guardians do not have the luxury of picking their battles. They go where they’re told, whether it’s Gettysburg, Europe, Okinawa, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, or a training ship based in San Diego. That’s why I hope our leaders take heed of what President Kennedy, a Navy Veteran, said when he spoke of “a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.”

All who serve with honor, and especially all who make the ultimate sacrifice, deserve our heartfelt appreciation.