RESPONSE. ABILITY.

On the eve of this year’s American Memorial Day, I have a few thoughts to pass along for anyone inclined to celebrate.   In my own efforts at showing love by listening for the most accurate understanding I can possibly give, I hear what amounts to a near consensus (among my fellow Americans) of concerns, make that complaints, about the issue of responsibility.  

People who identify as conservative seem highly concerned about the lack of personal responsibility here in our land.  This is understandable.   Our entire western culture has been shaped over many centuries around the notion that we are each responsible for ourselves.  We practice self-control.   We pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.  On the religious front, we are free to choose a personal faith and, in our nation’s dominant religious culture, we are responsible for accepting Jesus Christ as our “personal” savior.    Conservatives voice their value in rugged individualism as a kind of religion all its own.   Being dependent on others smacks of a sin all its own, implying laziness or “sloth.”      

Understandably, conservative Americans are greatly concerned with the matter of private freedom or personal liberty.   Take away personal responsibility, and all freedom is lost.   In their not so humble opinions.

Meanwhile, there are other Americans who identify as progressive and who seem just as highly concerned about the lack of social responsibility here in our land.   This, too, is understandable.   Our western culture has been influenced in some part, at least, by the writings of both the ancient Hebrew Bible as possessed by Jesus Christ and the earliest Christians and later the New Testament Bible and its stories and letters emphasizing love of neighbor as self in accord with our professed love of God, who created both neighbor and self and called all creation good.    Taking good care of each other in an interdependent system where there was no more “them” but only “us” as universal humanity seems right and holy to those voicing their progressive or liberal values.   Within their religion, sin implies selfishness or “greed.”  

Understandably, liberal Americans are greatly concerned with the matter of social freedom and interpersonal liberty.   Take away social responsibility, and all freedom is lost.   In their not so humble opinions.

Memorial Day calls us to an awareness of what happens when young American men and women, or at least those without bone spurs, take on a higher level of responsibility in order to protect what we know as being freedom or liberty for all.   We have an old saying, “all gave some and some gave all,” which suggests at least in my own humble opinion that some served out of personal responsibility while others served out of social responsibility……indeed surrendering personal freedom (even life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) entirely for the sake of others' freedoms.  

Christopher Nolan was an award winning film director whose 2017 movie, “Dunkirk,” won multiple nominations and awards.    It tells the story of when in 1940 well over 300,000 British soldiers were trapped and vulnerable for total annihilation by the Nazi military in WW II near the coastal village of Dunkirk, France at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.      Some call this story “the miracle of Dunkirk” because it tells about  how the British civilians in private boats, some for fishing and some for mere recreation, crossed the British Channel and rescued the large majority of British soldiers from the beach there at Dunkirk, taking on board a few soldiers at a time and rescuing others capsized in the waters after their military craft were attacked by the German Luftwaffe.  

“Dunkirk” reveals the story of self-sacrifice for the good of others, whether on the part of British military members themselves in times of war or of civilians who in some cases gave up their own lives in what can only be called acts of social responsibility.   And, indeed, Memorial Day is all about what happens when personal responsibility meets social responsibility.    Freedom and liberty depend upon responsibility in both areas, the private and the public.

As of today, I have no idea if America will remain free and independent.   As we approach the 250^th Anniversary of our Independence from the British Empire of King George III, I sense we are on terribly shaky ground.   We are no less vulnerable, in my own estimation, than were the British soldiers trapped at Dunkirk.    We are no less threatened as a nation by our American Fascist government in 2026 than were the British by the German Fascist government in control over Dunkirk in 1940.  

Can there be another “miracle of Dunkirk” rescuing America from today’s Fascist threat?     Can our new reality be as good as our old memory on this Memorial Day?   

I obviously don’t know as yet.  But I do believe that if we are to remain free and independent as a nation past this approaching 7/4/2026, it will take a combination of conservatives and liberals working together in the use of both personal and social responsibility.     No more greed.  No more sloth.   Honest repentance is in order.    No more “them” and “us” but only “us.”   We’re all in this together.   And if we fail in this rescue effort, then Memorial Day will itself be in vain.    

What will Americans do with our future response ability?