Memorial Day 2015

A few years ago, on my first visit to Poland, I spent a day at Auschwitz –its Polish name being Oświęcim – to understand and remember.  This week I’m in Taiwan until May 31.  I won’t get to be at the annual Memorial Day ceremony back home, so the plan is to visit WWII POW camps on NE side Formosa where LTG Jonathan Wainwright and others were held captive following the surrender at Corregidor.  Yesterday I saw a FB posting commemorating Memorial Day.  It was the image of an American flag superimposed with a shadow of a cross.  It got me thinking that all who served need honoring, regardless of “brand” of belief and by what symbol their “brand” of belief is or was identified – including “brands” that some might label “lack of belief” or “non belief” or “not my belief”.  Apparently they “believed” enough in each other (regardless of “brand”) to take care of what I get to enjoy.  Tuesday’s memories will include my Dad, my brother, some relatives and close friends & classmates – and some recent acquaintances whose “brands” have been, at times, shunned, scoffed, mocked, jeered or otherwise marginalized.  But they all served.

Lance Giroux

"There is more to life than increasing it's speed", M.K. Gandhi