For Memorial Day
The first “Decoration Day” was proclaimed by Gen. John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, and organization of former Union soldiers and sailors. States and finally the federal government followed in establishing the last Monday in May as a time to remember those who lost their lives in war. This official recognition came because of the thousands upon thousands of people who gathered at the end of every May to decorate the graves of those people lost to war. After the Civil War, this practiced touched every community. People marked the loss of loved ones with graveside visits, parades, and speeches.
Even the frenzy to turn this day into a shopping holiday has been unable to completely overshadow the solum notion that this is a day to acknowledge the human costs of war.
This Memorial Day brings these human costs into clear view. It coincides with the Trump administration proposal of the first trillion-dollar military budget.
Currently the US accounts for nearly 40% of all military expenditures around the globe. In 2024 the US spent $997 billion on defense. This is more than the next 9 countries combined.
In celebrating this commitment to military expenditures, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted his joy saying Trump. “is rebuilding our military and FAST.” He added a PS, “We intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely—on lethality and readiness.”
Hegseth is a man whose judgement is certainly questionable, But his comments highlight a troubling truth. The political choices reflected in this budget reveal how much we depend on weapons of war to keep our economy growing. We have sold our souls to the companies that produce death.
Our own Governor, Gretchen Whitmer made this clear when she joined Donald Trump at Selfridge Air National Guard Base to celebrate his first 100 days in office. Trump pledged to spare Selfridge from his list of base closings and promised a new fleet of fighter jets. Whitmer thanked him saying, “I am really damn happy we’re here to celebrate this recapitalization of Selfridge. It’s crucial for the Michigan economy. It’s crucial for the men and women here for our homeland security and our future,” The commitment is expected to prevent the loss of about $30 million in wages and to help economic development in the region.
Meanwhile, along with the weapons of death it solidifies, Selfridge will continue to poison the people of Michigan through our drinking water. It was this Airforce base and the extraordinary high levels of PFAS production that compelled Sen. Gary Peters to champion efforts to clean up contaminated drinking water. One of the ways Trump and his friends are paying for military expenses is by cutting back on the Environmental Protection Agency and its efforts to remediate drinking water.
The other way we are sustaining this level if military expenditure is by cutting back on the essentials of life for our most vulnerable people.
This Memorial Day marks the passage of five decades since the end of the Vietnam War. While Trump chose to ignore this moment, we cannot evade its legacy and what it reveals about how much we have distorted our economy and our lives to protect the profits of military spending.
The path toward a different future is clear. As Dr. King helped us understand in the midst of that terrible war, the US government is on the wrong side of history, He said:
We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
King went on to explain that war destroys everything, including the souls of those who make the bombs. He calls us to remember:
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.