Memorial Day

In the United States we honor fallen soldiers on Memorial Day.  What is referred to as their sacrifice is held in the highest reverential regard.  Soldiers dying in war is a given.  So is war.  While we have manage to stay the wholesale carnage visited in the first half of the 20th century, we still resolve mainly ideological and economic differences with the time honored tradition of taking up sides and killing each other.  From the perspective of political and military leaders, the soldiers killed are a necessary use of resources to accomplish  political goals.  For the family and friends of the fallen soldier, it is an irreplaceable loss in their lives.  We have decided to organize ourselves into states and use variations of the free market system to distribute wealth.  We also recognize war as a legitimate way of reconciling differences.  Again, because the people deciding on war are not the family and friends of the people who are going to fight it.  We are, like every other species on the planet in a fight for survival and will employ violence to enhance our survival.  We are also a sentient species that is aware of our actions and their consequences.  We need to change our behaviours, but there will  be many more Memorial Days before what is obvious is what we do.