“War, huh? Yeah … What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”, sung by Edwin Starr in 1968 during the Vietnam War!

Revolutionary War, 1776, the War of 1812, the British (again) Indian Wars, Mexican-American War, 1846, Civil War, 1861, Spanish-American War, 1898, World War I, 1914, World War II, 1939, Korean War, 1950, Vietnam War, 1959, Gulf War, 1990, War on Terror (Afghanistan, 2001, Iraq War, 2003). Don’t forget the American interventions: Yemen 2002, Uganda 2011, Somali 2007, Pakistan 2004, Niger 2018.

Or acts of unrest at home with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on our Capitol, and most currently aid to countries like Ukraine/Russian War and Israel/Gaza War to support democracy.

American families have a long history of fighting for democracy and preserving natural human rights of clean water, shelter, and food for all people. My own father served his country for this belief in World War II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Young men and women give their lives so “We the People” can have the opportunity to live in peace and prosperity.

This year, Memorial Day takes on a dark message for our country and the world.

If we don’t believe in love over hate, there will be no “We the People.”

President Dwight D. Eisenhower said it best: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

MARGARET KUTZERA,

Harrisville