May 26, 2013:

A Paradox On Memorial Day

My family has been in America a long time, since the early 1600’s. That is no cause for the pride some people seem to feel today that their relatives arrived sooner than more recent immigrants. Do you recall the picture by Norman Rockwell illustrating a family tree? Two proud parents are shown with their newborn baby — a highly respectable American family but above them in their family tree Rockwell put pictures of their ancestors including a pirate, a roughneck cowboy with a lady of shady virtue, together with the usual mixture of folks all of us can find in our background.

Having lived here for more than three centuries my family is related to the famous (the two Presidents Adams) as well as the infamous John Brown whose raid on the national arsenal at Harpers Ferry triggered the Civil War. Through these many years, members of my family have been in almost every American war, beginning with the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. My great-great-grandfather Adams died in the Civil War shortly after he enlisted as a substitute soldier for a rich man's son. My Uncle Harold was a soldier in the First World War and my Uncles Freeman and Ray served as military doctors in the Second World War. More recently, my son, Stuart, was in the army artillery in the First Gulf War.

I am proud of my family heritage and the dedication that some of them had to their country by serving in our nation’s military. Yet, here is the paradox I feel on every Memorial Day: how can I honor the courage and sacrifice of America’s warriors without approving all the wars in which they fought? Is it possible to honor the warrior and deplore the war? I believe it is.

Men and women serve in the armed forces for many reasons. Some of them want to; some of them are pushed to do it by family, friends, and community; and some have to do it because they were drafted. In most cases they serve honorably and bravely and a few of them are wounded — sometimes terribly — and some of them die in their nation’s service. We ought to honor them all on Memorial Day. I believe we also ought to honor those who as conscientious objectors could not serve. They, too, loved their country. All of them are sons and daughters of America and I salute them on this Memorial Day.

Love, Dave