Here are the numbers:

Civil War 655,000

WWII 405,000

WWI 116,000

Vietnam 58,000

Korea 37,000

Revolutionary War 25,000

War of 1812 15,000

Mexican War 13,000

Iraq War 5,000

Philippine War 4,000

Afghanistan 2,500

Spanish-American War 2,000

This adds up to approximately 1,355,000 Americans who have died in American wars.

I don’t know what to do with this number. Each was an individual with family, friends, etc.

The question most interesting to me is: Assume you have the ability to make a choice. You are told in 1861, for example, that we can bring an end to both secession and slavery, but the tradeoff will be 655,000 people will lose their life. Your choice. What would you do?

The same question can be asked about each war. Even World War II against the Nazis and Japanese with all of their atrocities. We can beat them. It will cost over 400,000 American lives. Should we do it?

On this Memorial Day, we remember these 1,355,000 Americans.

Or do we? Or do we instead go shopping, do errands, grill meat, maybe go to the beach or the zoo? Shouldn’t this one day be more serious than it is?

You know the National Moment of Remembrance Act, passed by Congress in 2000? Maybe it’s because I am 80, but I don’t remember it at all. Every Memorial Day at 3 p.m. (local time), things are supposed to stop for a moment, or sounds are supposed to blare (from military bugles, from Amtrak sirens, at baseball parks). We are to stop what we are doing and remember. Has this happened 22 years in the past; will it happen today? Will we (read: I) even remember at 3 p.m.?

Israel knows how to do this on its Memorial Day. Sirens blare all over the country. People even stop driving and get out of their cars in memory to those who have died in their country’s battles. One thing that Israel knows how to do correctly.

We hear about patriotism and America First and all that stuff all the time. Has anyone on the right told us how to act on Memorial Day? Anyone on the left? Looks to me like a bipartisan failure.