Letter: Memorial Day weekend thoughts

There were those that gave the ultimate sacrifice with honor, others died in vain.

Many years ago as a Cubmaster, our pack marched in the Memorial Day parade in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. The parade marched north on Clark Street toward the Civil War Rosehill Cemetery. It was pouring rain. On the hallowed ground, we stood and listened to several people give short orations. The observance ended when the Lane Tech High School band played the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” as the sky began to weep uncontrollably. I have never had a more memorable Memorial Day.

This past Memorial Day weekend, many know that if it weren’t for the United States abandoning its founding principles, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians would stop, peace negotiations ending the latest endless war in Ukraine would begin, and the U.S. would avoid the Thucydides’ trap of confrontation with China. JFK said, “Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man … Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable – and we believe they can do it again.”

Knowing is not acting. There are solutions. The biggest problem in the Middle East is not hatred but lack of water. The Oasis Plan for regional development was introduced in 1975. Ukraine is the gateway between Europe and Asia. The British Great Game has been played there since 1830. China opened the country to Western capitalists and since then, using the American system, has become the second largest economy on earth.

Nicholas C. Kockler

Woodstock