A celebration of our sickness.

A holiday in America. The Memorial Day weekend. To honor the war dead. A pity. A shame. That we Americans have had so very many wars. We have all sorts of wars. A war on drugs. A war on terrorism.  We have bitter, hateful wars in Congress. Between Republicans and Democrats. We’ve had wars on black people. And red people, too. We have wars on ourselves. We celebrate war. We think of the war dead as heroes. Patriots. Sacrificing one’s self for country. We Americans think of ourselves as the good guys. And the rest of the world as the bad hombres. But I guess that goes for every country. In Germany the superior ones are Germans. In Russia, the Russians. In China, the Chinese. War has become a game. All over the world. An international pastime. Often revered.  Made to seem glamorous. Reason for a holiday. A celebration of our sickness. –Jim Broede