Memorial Day(s): American Martyrs for Freedom, A Meditation
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: American Empire, Black History, Bobby's World, Contemporary Ethics, Martin Luther King, Race Relations
I am making this particular post today rather than yesterday for many reasons. I want to remember that many martyrs for freedom did not die only in wars. Read with an open mind.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (Thomas Jefferson)
“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing.” (Frederick Douglass)
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” (Martin Luther King, Jr)
These three quotes should be on our minds every day. But especially this time of year. Do I/we believe the first one? Jefferson didn’t.
Do I/we believe the second and third? Douglass did and King died because of it.
Who are the heroes of American freedom?
How do we decide?
Whose names do we hold in awe?
Surely the soldiers who die are considered heroes for freedom. We Americans celebrate them. It is not just that they were soldiers. Nor is it that they merely died. It is the CAUSE for which they died – for freedom.
Here in the United States there are monuments everywhere supposedly to freedom. Washington DC is loaded with them.
County courthouses usually have some kind of memorial in front of them. We have Veterans Day and Memorial Day and Independence Day, all supposedly holy days of freedom in American Civil Religion.
But in our collective history we have not only heroes but genuine martyrs. Martyrs for freedom. These martyrs raise important and difficult questions for us to wrestle with. I think we must wrestle with them for the sake of the “soul of America.” These countless martyrs died for the same cause as the soldiers whom we honor. I do not think I can honor the grand concept of freedom without honoring them.
The existence of the martyrs, however, raises the profound question of WHY were they martyrs in the first place here in “the land of the free and home of the brave.” We cannot escape this question even if we would like too.
Here is a short roll call, far from exhaustive. They are martyrs. Each one lost her or his life violently. Violently and in the cause for freedom. Why are these names not as cherished as the Maccabeans? Why do we not say these names with almost reverence? Or at the very least those with huge public monuments named for them. In no particular order, and listed from random memory. Say their names as you read them. Audibly verbalize their names.
Emmett Till
Malcolm X
Crispus Attucks
Medgar Evers
Cynthia Wesley
Carole Robertson
Carol Denise McNair
Addie Mae Collins
Martin Luther King Jr
Rosewood (town in Florida)
Virgil Lamar Ware
Colfax (town in Louisiana)
George Lee
James Chaney
Mary Turner (and her unborn baby)
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Ahmaud Arbery
Tulsa/Greenwood (town in Oklahoma)
Black Civil War Soldiers (tens of thousands killed by enemies of freedom from the Confederate States)
Abraham Smith
Michael Donald
Botham Jean
5000+ Women, Men & Children named at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery Alabama
Thomas Shipp
(Many more)
Each one of these died because they believed the first quote. Each one died because the second and third quote is truth.
Who is a hero?
A hero is not one who gives his or her life for their own personal well being, self-aggrandizement, wealth and power.
Heroes give their lives for a cause that is for everyone. They believe in the rights and dignities of people OTHER THAN THEMSELVES. They believe those rights and dignities OF OTHERS are worth protecting.
This is why I have long given up on the false lie (yes lie) that Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis are actual heroes. They fought to DENY freedom to millions. There is nothing heroic about that. This is why hundreds of thousands of black American Civil War soldiers are heroes. They fought for the REALITY of Jefferson denied. They fought for the “cause of freedom.”
The names on this list are beyond heroes. They are martyrs. They were Martyrs FOR Freedom. There are literally thousands of them in our US history. Every one of them died violently.
Some, like the Maccabean Martyrs, were going about their business of going to church, jogging, sitting in their home. Some were arguing night and day against the injustice of the denial of basic equality by the oppressors. Every one was a martyr FOR freedom.
Why did they have to die?
They were killed not on some foreign land by enemies of the United States. They were killed right here on American soil at the hands of people claiming to love America. Hundreds of them were in fact veterans of the United States Army some even in uniforms while being brutally killed. But each one championed a cause – freedom for every human being. They were Martyrs FOR Freedom.
Why were they martyrs for freedom in the “land of the free?”
Why do we fail to recognize them as the heroes and martyrs they are? (Every black martyr died for the freedom of every American).
We almost always run from these questions. But we must LINGER with these questions.
The whole point of a memorial day is to remember the PURPOSE for the hero/martyrs death and make sure our lives and goals are in line with their sacrifice.
“We fail to linger in the dark moments at our peril.”
Today I remember not only the soldiers but also the martyrs for freedom. Freedom for everyone. Say their names beloved.
For Shalom.
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