Crosses in the sand

We all know that our "national holiday" in the U.S. is Independence Day, better known as the Fourth of July. I'm wondering whether that should be changed to the last Monday in May, Memorial Day.

I started thinking that after attending a pair of Memorial Day ceremonies at cemeteries around the area yesterday morning. They were small events--this is not a big area, after all--but they were very sincere tributes to the men (and women) who died while serving their country during wartime.

At our paper, we've had a special section for the last few years where we interview vets and learn about their war experience. That's one of the special issues I enjoy the most, because the people I talk to are just ordinary people who found themselves thrown into extraordinary circumstances and did their very best to carry out their duty. They did so in many ways--from running the ship engines that transported supplies across the Pacific, to running the tanks that crossed the Rhein at Remagen, to getting trapped during the Battle of the Bulge. We've been concentrating on the World War II vets, because they're dying off rapidly--the war ended 60 years ago.

These men are proud of what they did, and most are involved in military organizations now, such as the Legion and VFW--but they also know about all the misery and heartbreak caused by war.

One of the speakers yesterday talked movingly about the monuments to the soldiers around the country and in Washington, D.C., Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Memorial. He had to pause several times to keep his voice from cracking.

Then, last night, I was watching The National (the nightly newscast on CBC, which we get on our cable system), when they reported on a group of veterans in Santa Monica, Calif., who are placing small white crosses on the Santa Monica beach every Sunday, one for each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, with their names. The 1600+ crosses are arranged with great precision, and one of the spokesmen explained they do this "to call attention to the horrible price that we pay for the invasion of Iraq."

I was pretty touched, all the more so since the consequences of the U.S. doing what it did were obvious to many of us as our president single-mindedly pushed us and pushed us to war. True, a tyrant was deposed. But think about the enormous price our country, our people and our economy are paying! How do you spell Iraq in seven letters?

I don't know what to write next. I'm just terribly sad about all those crosses they showed in the sand. Not that they're there ... but why they're there.