A Minute of Silence Isn't Enough to Reflect on the US's Death and Destruction

Memorial Day originally prompted schoolchildren to associate the holiday with leisure, leading Congress to emphasize remembrance. A 24-note bugle call used for military funerals was broadcast nationwide at 3:00 pm, followed by a minute of silence before celebrations resumed. The holiday’s purpose raises questions about reflecting on soldiers who died in U.S. wars and whether such reflection is possible. The piece turns to raw casualty figures across many conflicts, listing deaths from the War for Independence through later wars and occupations. The numbers span independence, frontier violence, civil war, overseas wars, world wars, and Cold War-era fighting, emphasizing the scale of loss.

"Thirty years ago, school kids touring Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. were asked what Memorial Day meant to them. "That's the day the pools open!" they responded, as if in a chorus. Their response rippled across the U.S. and created a bit of a moral panic among the patriotic and civil-minded. The following Memorial Day, Congress sought to put the "memorial" back into the holiday."

""Taps," a 24-note bugle call adopted by the U.S. military in the late 1800s for funerals, was played on radios and televisions throughout the United States at 3:00 pm. Those celebrating the day off paused, perhaps mid-hot dog bite, to reflect on fallen U.S. soldiers. After a minute of silence, Americans resumed their fun."

"What does it mean to reflect on the soldiers who died while fighting in U.S. wars? Is such a thing possible? If it is, maybe we should start with the raw numbers. Around 25,000 U.S. soldiers died in the War for Independence; roughly 5,600 soldiers died or were wounded as they ethnically cleansed Indigenous tribes between 1785 and 1898; approximately 20,000 died in the War of 1812, mostly of disease."

"625,000 died on both sides of the Civil War; 2,446 died in the Spanish-American War; 4,200 U.S. soldiers died "annexing" the Philippines; 95 died in the Boxer Rebellion; 22 died and 70 were wounded in the Mexican Revolution; at least 86 died in the occupation of Haiti from 1915-1934; nearly 117,000 were killed in World War I; 424 U.S. troops died fighting the Bolsheviks in Russia from 1918-1920."

Read at Truthout