Memorial Day as a universal concept.

Earlier today we viewed the DVD of Clint Eastwood's highly acclaimed "Letters from Iwo Jima." As you may recall, the film presents the bloody World War II battle from the viewpoint of the island's Japanese defenders. It is a perspective perhaps unexpected for those who remember Clint from his cinematic heyday as Inspector Harry Callaghan, but that helps to understand why the Hollywood legend has excelled behind the camera even more so than in front of it.

The film pulls no punches, and there are few, if any, heroes to be found. It is my habit to refrain from gratuitous violence, but not in war movies. After all, war is precisely that: Gratuitous. Memorial Day is a good time to remember that, and a bad time to watch John Wayne wartime flicks.

Although my contrarianism is legendary, I'll not be the one to differ, at least too loudly, with the prevailing view of Memorial Day as a time to pause momentarily from grilling artery-busting burgers and drinking extremely bad beer to remember the sacrifices of America's fighting men and women through the ages.

For me, it's a far more worthy holiday is it prompts introspection into the sacrifice made by all soldiers in all places and times, the vast majority of whom have been little more than cannon fodder and largely without any identifiably personal stake in the outcome of battles fought for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with those doing the actual dying.

There's no better example that George W. Bush's war in Iraq to make this point, but I needn't stop there. I've visited the American cemeteries in and around the Normandy beaches, but I've also seen memorials in the former Soviet Union. For every Union grave there is a Confederate resting place. Near the French and English tombs scattered through the West Flanders countryside are similar ones for the German invaders from 1914-1918.

Last year we took advantage of the Memorial Day holiday to visit the Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. I did it again earlier today. In 2007, after I wrote about the day at my NA Confidential blog, I received several anonymous e-mails taking issue with my celebration of a draft dodger. Whatever the background and service record of these correspondents, it should be fairly obvious to most observers that this combination of a black man publicly opposing war and critics too cowardly to sign their names makes the point about Memorial Day's true significance better than further commentary from me.

Originally posted at MySpace under Life