Memorial Day: More than just a time to remember our fallen heroes

It's too easy to blame Bush and Blair for the Pandora's box of the Iraq war. (See "Iraq Is the Republic of Fear" and "What if we held our political leaders to the same standards as our CEOs?" below.) What's 100,000 casualties in Iraq, as some experts have estimated, when in Africa deaths in the millions from violence are ordinary occurrences? TIME magazine reports this week that 4 million have died since 1998 in the Congo due to ongoing war.

But violence isn't the only culprit. Worldwide, at least 3.1 million died of AIDS in 2005 alone. Many of these deaths could have been prevented.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths occur each year as a result of vaccine preventable diseases and for lack of clean drinking water. A child dies every five seconds of hunger. Despite our highly advanced worldwide connectedness, global economy and increased crosscultural understanding, we still fail at many basics.

To be aware is only half the battle. To go beyond awareness and take action — whether it be volunteer, financial, political, as part of work — that is where we all can make a difference.

In the U.S., it is Memorial Day. We honor those who have lost their lives defending this country (World War II) as well as those who died in more dubious conflicts (Vietnam war and today's Iraq war). Regardless of the purpose of war, all deaths must be mourned equally; for those who die are not the leaders that take us into war but those who by circumstance must carry out those orders.

Similarly, worldwide deaths from needless wars based on religion or culture or resources, or from preventable diseases, water-borne illnesses, malnutrition and starvation, are not caused by the victims but by circumstance.

Memorial Day is a day to remember our war dead. But it is also an important reminder that there is much work to be done to alleviate all human suffering.