Veteran Andy Rooney Hits The Memorial Day Nail On The Head
I rarely watch 60 Minutes anymore, but yesterday I coincidentally caught Andy Rooney's commentary on Memorial Day. I am very glad that I saw it.
A lot of the time Rooney plays the curmudgeonly old fella with quirky takes on this and that. But what many may not realize is that Rooney is a WW II veteran. Like so many in his generation, Rooney knew not a few who were killed in that war. When you know them it gets personal. On this occasion Rooney gave America a glimpse of the razor sharp mind and very deep emttions that run through this man and, I think, many of those who understand what war really is. His commentary is well worth the minute or so it takes to listen to it.
At the end of the commentary, Rooney makes, IMHO, the best and most important point that can or should be made on Memorial Day. With the hundreds of thousands of our countrymen and women fighting overseas (for what I don't know), each of us ought to give some thought as to how we might accomplish Rooney's wish.
Here is the conclusion of his commentary:
"Remembering doesn't do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don't find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives.
That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating."
The rest of this brief but excellent commentary can be found here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/26/60minutes/rooney/main697964.shtml
He's got it right. That is what you call, actually supporting our troops!
May 25, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Amen. Thanks for posting this.
May 25, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, wow! What a great catch, oleeb! Thanks for posting this. It so well sums up the problems of our time.
May 25, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hooray for Andy. The butt of many jokes over the last decade or so. Hooray for Andy.
May 25, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Some new religion"?????
That would be going backwards. Religion has caused more war deaths than anything else.
May 25, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too literal. He means a societal state of mind that makes war an anathema, much as religion does with other things.
May 26, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Was it you, C'Ville, who recommended earlier today that any future wars be approved by the young and fought by the elders? I agree with you. No religion required, just a commitment to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
May 25, 2009 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
People who have participated in war are the people who want to avoid war. Cheney/bush never participated in war. They worked like hell to start one.
May 25, 2009 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks.
Here's to the day when Department of Defense is just that, and not Orwellian doublespeak.
Peace.
May 26, 2009 12:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for sharing Andy's thoughts with us. The idea that Memorial Day would be well spent dwelling on ways to prevent the horrendous loss of life through the years..........what a perfect day that would be -
May 26, 2009 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Brilliant. Many of the same thoughts that occurred to me amidst all the flag waving yesterday. Why can't we honor the people who's lives were taken in war by finding a way to make war an anachronism, an evolutionary artifact, like vestigial tails or the appendix?
May 26, 2009 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great post, oleeb! You have hit upon a point here that has been a puzzle for me: How did we ever decide that the proper way to settle disputes between peoples/countries was to send our young men & women into a barbaric "kill or be killed" contest with the opposing sides' young men and women? Wouldn't a square-off between chess champions from each side actually accomplish the same objective (picking a winner and loser) with considerably less loss of blood and treasure?
I know this sounds facetious, but think about it. How can we continue justifying the wholesale slaughter of human beings as a means of settling disputes? We do not allow it in any other circumstance. Why, then, is it acceptable on such a grand scale in disputes involving nations?
May 26, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think the people that wish harm to the USA in Afghanistan for example, have any interest whatsoever in playing chess, or discussing rationally their differences.
Oleeb's post is excellent, though. Memorial Day needs to be less of a day of solemn remembrance and more of a day of empassioned activism to prevent War from happening in the 1st place.
May 26, 2009 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
We can't justify it, we can only rationalize and explain it.
May 26, 2009 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
And we wonder why those men and women from WWII were the greatest generation?
If all we do is memorialize the dead, we guarantee their lives were lost in vain. We bury the ideas for which they fought. Something greater then themselves, is replaced by merely wasted humanity. Nothing moved forward.
It is time to come to terms with the fact that today's wars, and very likely most wars througout history, are fought to perpetuate the wealth of the merchants of death. Only now we have privitized the Grim Reaper's orgy to include vendors of even the most distant accessories of the soldiers, right down to cooking their meals and cleaning their latrines.
Come join the Carnival!!! It's the next frontier of unbridled capitalism.
May 26, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
And to think that I'd grown used to skipping his commentaries, and followed suit last night when I watched. My mistake.
May 26, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink