Tag Archive for Memorial

What Does Releasing Doves Really Mean?

They know not what they do. Today, in Las Vegas, people are celebrating the lives of the victims of the horrific shooting. They mean well, desperate to find a way to say “We care” and “We are deeply saddened.”  Unfortunately, they’re misguided.

The dove is a symbol of peace. But consider these doves.  There’s a prosperous industry that breeds and raises doves in captivity to be purchased and released at weddings, funerals, and memorials of tragic events. These birds have never been in the wild, never learned to protect themselves from predators or find food for themselves. The result is that birds of prey (falcons, hawks, etc.) make a quick meal of the helpless doves. The ones that escape their talons go hungry or starve to death. They don’t have a chance.

To me, that soils the symbolism.

Please consider this if you ever think of using doves as part of your celebration.

 

A Remembrance for Today

A few years ago I experienced the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii.  The visit began with a film showing the horrors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  My eyes blurred with tears.  Then there was the choppy boat trip to the monument, a short distance from other coffin-ships which suffered the same fate as the Arizona.  So many names filled the wall behind the altar-like steps, and the hush of the crowd echoed the silent voices trapped deep beneath us.  Little was said on the trip back to land, but one absurd, disturbing comment shocked me into  realizing that we’ve learned so little since then: “At least we got even when we hit Hiroshima.”

This Veterans Day I’m thinking the Canadians are right to call it “Remembrance Day.”  It’s important to remember and honor our veterans, those who fought for our way of life.  It’s even more important to remember that, as a human family, we should work toward a time when the reason for such occasions, and comments like that woman’s, are only adistant bad memory.

Hug a veteran, and pray for peace.

 

 

Let’s Create a Fitting Memorial

 

On this day, I pause to remember the men and women who died fighting America’s wars, including all those “wars,” “police actions,” “peace-keeping missions,” or whatever.  Their goal was to liberate different parts of the world from tyrants and regimes that treated people like insignificant, disposable, unworthy, non-humans.  This was their contribution to upholding the dignity of man and working toward peace.

A fitting memorial to these people would be to carry on their mission. Not by running off to a far-away land and fighting, but by living our daily lives as though those around us and those foreign to us both near and far, those with different skin colors, religions, socio-economic status–everyone–were human beings made in the image of God.  Such a peaceful, tolerant attitude must start with us individually, in our homes, schools, and workplaces and spread to our cities, states, nation, and, ultimately, the world.  Maybe such a global attitude will prevent tyrants and hate-groups from getting a foothold.

I know this is idealistic, but so were all those who died fighting our battles.  Carrying on their idealism is an appropriate way to honor them.  Even if we succeed only in making a more peaceful, tolerant piece of the world in our own lives, that, too, is a fit memorial to them.  Today is an excellent day to begin!

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