Memorial Day-- My Dad served in the Navy in WWII and my uncle was a medic in Korea, but no one in my generation in my family was ever in the service (brothers, cousins, husbands got college deferments or lucky lottery numbers during the Vietnam War). I was a peace marcher in the 70's. More recently, some of my most inspiring students in ESL classes have been refugees from South Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia.  I got a different perspective. Now my son is in the California Army National Guard and I feel a closer connection with service men and women and their families. I just watched the whole Memorial Day Concert in Washington DC -- sobbed through a lot of it. Nothing is as simple as it used to seem -- brave people, stupid wars, just causes, horrific results. Compared to a young wife with little tots losing her husband in Afghanistan, my loss of Greg to Parkinson's seems somehow....less. We had a life. What about civilians being killed by drones? What about all those little girls who can't go to school when the Taliban is in charge? Why is it our fight? Why shouldn't it be? What can peace-loving people (talk about the 99%!) do?