On different dates and in different ways, every nation honors those who gave their lives in service of their homeland. In the United States, we do this especially on Memorial Day. Those who gave their lives in one place, did so because they had enemy in another place - yet in that other place, our enemies are honored as heroes by their own people. It is because we are, indeed, all one, that we are all children of one God, that we need to love our neighbor - even our enemy.
This poem by William Stafford prayerfully places before us the implication of the Lord's commandment: Love one another as I have loved you...
For the Unknown Enemy
This monument is for the unknown
good in our enemies. Like a picture
their life began to appear: they
gathered at home in the evening
and sang. Above their fields they saw
a new sky. A holiday came
and they carried the baby to the park
for a party. Sunlight surrounded them.
Here we glimpse what our minds long turned
away from. The great mutual
blindness darkened that sunlight in the park,
and the sky that was new, and the holidays.
This monument says that one afternoon
we stood here letting a part of our minds
escape. They came back, but different.
Enemy: one day we glimpsed your life.
This monument is for you.
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