Memorial Day and Reminders of Daily Civil Warfare

Monday was Memorial Day in America.  For some, it was the delicious extra vacation day that elongated the weekend and heralded the beginning of summer.  For others, it was a sober reminder of personal loss and the general devastation of war.  For all of us it should provide an annual reminder of real service to our country.  We could all use some continuing education, and this is a lesson that needs repeating.

Memorial Day became a national holiday by formal declaration on May 30, 1868.  Originally named “Decoration Day”, it followed and expanded local traditions of setting time aside for quiet reverence while decorating the graves of the Civil War dead.

Here is General Order No. 11:

The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

More than 150 years later, a civil war still rages.  Most of the combatants aren’t in military attire, although some wear identifiable uniforms of the street.  They are our inner-city youth.  Too many lose their lives.  Many, many more lose their potential.  What are we going to do about this carnage?  Their future is our future.  Will we fight to save it?  What will our weapons be?

Too many American children face the structural violence of poverty on a daily basis.  They have been experiencing deprivation, physical and cultural violence since birth.  When these children are asked what they want to be when they grow up, some of them begin their reply, “If I grow up, I want to be…” Theirs is a contingent approach to adulthood; they live with death.  Why forego any of today’s pleasures if the future is so uncertain?  Why study?  Why develop discipline?  Even if they saw their value, there aren’t enough mature adults around to support study and teach discipline by lecture and example.

The situation is particularly bad — and symbolically appalling — in our capital.  During the Civil War, the North feared invasion of Washington D.C. by the Confederacy.  This kind of attack Abraham Lincoln, his government and his army forestalled.  But let there be no doubt: D.C. has now been invaded, and once again the war is among Americans – “civil” in that sense but in no other.

Our capital has repeatedly been deemed “the murder capital of America.”   A study three years ago may also make it “the illiteracy capital of America”: 36% of D.C. residents were then “functionally illiterate”, compared to 21% nationwide.  Compounding the severity of this situation is the fact that 47% of the jobs in D.C. require college or graduate-school degrees, compared to 26% nationally.

D.C.’s Chamber of Commerce – which helped fund the study — reported that its city lost $107 million in taxes every year because of the shortage of skilled job applicants.  At least this fact is now probably outdated: data on migration among states show the greatest immigration to our capital.  Government is where all the new jobs are.    But how will D.C.’s youth ever qualify for positions requiring so many advanced degrees when they are without role models, mentors, self-esteem and hope?  Could we at least give them a good education?

Every Memorial Day we should also commemorate those Americans whose hopes and potential have also been killed even if their bodies are still alive.  Every day, we should be working to win the war against poverty.    The Confederacy did not conquer Washington, D.C., but its ugly underpinning, racism, is part of a devastating legacy.  It is today enslaving African – American youth in many places just as profoundly as it did in the old South. Poverty, however, is a problem that crosses race lines.

Not only are certain DC youth without roll models, mentors, self-esteem and hope, they’re also without a decent school system. In return for risking their lives to save the world, World War II combatants were given free education with choices through the GI bill.  Why don’t we have similar programs, most likely through school vouchers, for those scarred by urban violence?  Theirs is a war just as surely as those formally declared by Congress.  It’s time to return to the War on Poverty, and the best way to arm those fighting their way out is through education.