Amazing Photo: Hurricane does not deter guards at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

[redgreenandblue]

319. In such a picture one sees what one wants to see.

As was pointed out somewhere in this thread, that photograph isn't from the current storm. But that doesn't matter I guess.

Some people will look at this picture and see honor. To them, it is a question of whether one "gets it" or not. Almost like a religious experience.

Others will look at the picture and maybe think of similar pictures, highly staged and polished, that lead them to make decisions that ultimately ruined their lives.

Some people will just see dudes standing in the rain, doing something not particularly challenging.

And somewhere for certain there is a seventeen year old kid who will see this picture and be so impressed, he or she will decide to enlist and end up killing innocents and dying for a pointless cause.

My grandmother once told me my idealistic nature reminded her of her brother. His ideas of honor and duty drove him to volunteer and get himself killed in WWII, on Germany's side.

I am not a 100% pacifist. And I get the psychological appeal of ceremony and the idea of self-sacrifice. But as long as such ceremonies elevate the sacrifices of one group over those of another I will always be opposed to them, for their net effect on society is to pit human against human.

Where are the ceremonies for the Iraqi soldiers that were killed defending their country from US aggression? Where are the ceremonies for those who accepted shaming and jail time for resisting the draft during Vietnam or deserting when Bush decided to invade Iraq? They also made a sacrifice, for doing what they believe was the right thing. Yet they are excluded from being "honored", even though the effects of their actions, in the greater context, were better for humanity as a whole.

Where are ceremonies for people like Bradley Manning, who in the face of injustice decided to do what ever was within his means to throw a wrench into the machine as it was rolling forward?