Fleeting Memorials

As advertised, the Memorial Day weekend was an orgy of planting here on the NCR.  Peppers, tomatoes, squash, beans and carrots all crowded into the garden on Saturday and Sunday.  With reports of rain coming in on Monday I scaled back expectations, but we got little or nothing from the sky, so the planting and weeding continued.  This time of year, weeding, planting and watering compete for attention and if you neglect any of them the consequences will haunt you for the rest of the season.  I tried to think of the supposed meaning of the holiday as I worked, but the older I get, the more cynical are my remembrances of wars, past and present.  I have lived during the brushfire war era.  Starting with Korea and continuing  through Vietnam, the Balkans, Iraq 1 and 2, etc. it is hard to believe the rhetoric which is trotted out every Memorial Day.  Most politicians have retreated to honoring those who serve in these odious little wars of choice without even trying to justify them.  It is a facile position which is virtually unchallenged.  No one wants to denigrate the sacrifices made by our volunteer army, but we need to get the blinkers off and realize what exactly we are fighting for in the 21st century.