Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
Hoo, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask ’em, “How much should we give?”
Hoo, they only answer, “More, more, more, more”
–-Fortunate Son, John Fogerty
Another Memorial Day weekend has come. I am in the final days of prepping work for my Principle Gallery show that opens in less than two week so I am too busy to ramble on much this morning about the meaning of the holiday. I am just going to basically redo a post from several years back that shows a photo and play a song, Fortunate Son, which is about the injustice of wars where the young and the poor pay the price by fighting and dying in wars waged by rich old men who shelter their own children from having to pay that same price.
The photo above, from the National Library of Medicine, feature five Civil War veterans who lost limbs in combat. I guess, in their own way, they were fortunate in the fact they were able to come out only missing limbs from a war where so many others lost their lives.
That was probably small comfort to them.
It’s a great and moving photo. I spent a few moments this morning looking closely at each of their faces. Hope you’ll do the same.
Here’s the classic Fortunate Son released by Creedence Clearwater Revival back in 1969. It’s message still resonates after 50+ years and most likely applies to most every war ever waged.
Redtree Times 
I just read an article in the New Yorker about trench warfare in Ukraine. At the beginning of the war, all classes fought – but now the fighting is being done by the “workers” – the laboring classes, the farmers and so on. Was it ever thus? Seems to me that a lot of “upper class” English young men suffered and died in the trenches in World War I. and then look at all the ancient Greek heroes- so many of whom died in fighting. But these are probably exceptions? and mostly I agree with you.
Of course, there are always exceptions to every broad generalization and there are certainly plenty of examples of those born of wealth who fought and died in combat. But it ends up being a numbers game. Large fighting forces are naturally going to be mainly comprised of the middle and lower classes since these groups make up the largest portion of the population. Maybe wars should be fought as some many have suggested over the years, with the wealthy old men from each side who have material interest in the conflict actually meeting and fighting one another and leaving the rest of us alone. I would like to say that there would probably be fewer wars but who knows?