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Shakespeare was Wrong
William Shakespeare put the following words into the mouth of Marc Anthony, speaking at the funeral of Julius Caesar: The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.
As much as I love the Bard's writings, I must respectfully disagree.
Lately we've been hearing a bit about the heroism of Ed Freeman, a Vietnam veteran who finally received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001, for heroic deeds he performed in 1965. Predictably, we're reading this because CPT (ret.) Freeman has just died. It seems that we never have time to praise people when they are alive and thriving; only after someone has died, or had his business fail does even a genuine hero's story become interesting enough to be published.
Bob Weir wrote the following, in The News Connection. Ordinarily, Mr. Weir is a bit too self-absorbed for my taste, but I find myself in agreement with the following, which is his commentary on the death of Ed Freeman:
Something terrible has happened to our country. A malignancy has crept into our thinking and turned us into self-absorbed misfits, many of whom have a blasé attitude toward those who have bled and died so that we could live in freedom and prosperity. I suppose an aberrant type of complacency implants itself into one's subconscious when one's safety and security have always been arranged from afar. If you, or a family member, never had to fight in a war zone and never learned the meaning of near-death experiences, you might tend to ignore those who suffered and died to spare you that nightmare. It doesn't take much courage to speak loftily about the evils of war from the comfortable sanctuary of your living room, surrounded by family and friends. It's easy to be against war; only a maniac would feel otherwise. However, recognizing that sometimes war is the only option available to keep the peace, takes a greater level of maturity and life experience. Without the Revolutionary War there would not have been a United States of America. If we had not entered World War 2 to fight the Axis Powers, we'd probably be speaking German and waiting our turn while the Fuhrer (probably his successor) was deciding if we had enough Aryan blood to allow us to live.
Even the Civil War, which had Americans killing Americans, was necessary to preserve the Union and break the chains that held an entire race in bondage. Although we can wax philosophically about there being no winners in war, there would certainly have been losers if brave men and women didn't stand up against evil tyrants. ...I think people like Mr. Freeman represent honor, integrity and courage. We live in a free country today because of the sacrifices made by him and countless numbers of other patriots.
Since the first of the year I have witnessed, in an official capacity, the burials of more than one hundred honorably discharged US veterans. After one funeral yesterday, I made this note in my diary: "You bring the body; we [the military honor guard] will supply the dignity." This was in reaction to one more funeral at which attendees--you really can't call them mourners with accuracy--acted as though they haven't a clue how to show respect. Four of the six pallbearers were in shirtsleeves, one actually wearing an orange polo shirt. At least one person came dressed in jeans and an untucked white tee shirt. One guy apparently drove his "significant other" to the funeral, but did not bother to get out of the car; when she rushe out of the chapel in tears, he called out, "Are you OK?" Mighty comforting of him...
So Bob Weir is even more accurate than he thinks. We have not only lost the capacity to honor people as heroes, many of us have forgotten (or more likely, never been trained in) how to show respect to our own blood. Rather, we hire funeral directors and others to do that while we carry on in whatever fashion suits our taste. As I've heard someone observe (meaning to be humorous) it's too often not about the deceased or his life, but where we are going to eat afterward.