I used to love John Lennon’s song Imagine. In the song, John runs through a litany of things that people fight about, and imagines what a better world we would have if those things did not exist. No more countries, no more religion etc.

I still enjoy the song on an occasion because we all like to dream. Unfortunately we also like to explain our violence away by blaming things. Countries, religions, possessions (guns) and so forth. There has never been a country, religion or a gun, that has in and of itself, ever harmed anyone.

People kill people. People take away borders. People change religion into a killing machine, and even create religions that are meant to kill. People kill with guns. People also kill with knifes, baseball bats, cars, poison, and they kill with hate.

Taking the instruments (including countries and religions) away, would only prevent those with a respect for life, from defending themselves and others from those who have none. Those who love to hate.

Still, it’s important to imagine.

Our imagination brings us an infinite number of possibilities for a better world. While we work on those possibilities, our liberty and our life depends on how willing we are to defend those things we believe in. It takes people to do that. Today, Memorial Day, is set aside for all of those who gave “the last full measure of their devotion”, to quote Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Let’s thank God for all of those men and women who took seriously the challenge that laid before them. I am quite sure that each of them once imagined the great things that were yet to come in their lives. Let’s remember what they did, and why.

Imagine

Wayne