In memory of Ultimate Sacrifices

B and I placed flags on veterans' graves this morning, part of a local project, but the first time we have been involved. We were assigned the oldest burial ground in town, where most of the veterans were from the Revolutionary War.

I'm conflicted about war as a means of settling conflict. My feelings about this have deepened since our trip to the battlefields of World War I eight years ago this summer. Seeing the senseless loss of an entire generation of Europe's youngest is hard to come to terms with, and even although it was so long ago, it felt very present to those of us walking in the trenches.

Rudyard Kipling lost a son in WWI, and was involved in the official efforts at memorializing the dead after 1919. He helped to design the standard features of British cemeteries on the Continent, including verbiage like "unknown but to God." His grief, though, had another side as well - cynical of the politics that led his son and millions of others into death. This couplet of his reflects that sorrowful cynicism:

"If any ask you why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied."

True then, true now.