It’s Memorial Day in the United States, the day we commemorate our fallen military. However, it cannot really be Memorial Day until we come to commemorate ALL fallen members of the military forces of ALL nations. When we choose to turn Memorial Day into some kind of nationalistic obscenity by suggesting that the problem isn’t that we haven’t learned to resolve our differences peacefully but rather than OUR troops must suffer and die, we are actually saying that if we could wage a war in which our enemies lay dismembered and scattered on the battlefield while OUR troops walked away unscathed that would be cause for celebration. Such views are obscene because they fail to acknowledge our common bond as members of humanity and instead lift up human created national boundaries as our gods – perhaps the most obscene idolatry of all. So this day is ultimately not about cookouts, as so many Facebook memes suggest, but it’s also not only about OUR military. It’s about all who have served in every time and place, and a true commitment to honor them would mean committing to evolve to the place where such sacrifice is never again necessary.