What Inspires Me? #17-Humans Who Serve
It’s Memorial Day! We say Happy Memorial Day? Bittersweet really. Originally known as “Decoration Day” a Springtime memorial ritual begun after the Civil War, Memorial Day was declared an official holiday in 1971, a day to honor humans who died while serving in the U.S. military.
For many of us, Memorial Day weekend is a joyful time heralding the beginning of summer fun, corn on the cob and potato salad, graduations, celebrations—and maybe that’s as it should be. For when we think our loved ones who served, isn’t that why they served? Why they sacrificed themselves, their liberty, their double scoop—to “ensure the blessing of liberty” for all of us. Humans for humanity.
Humans as in veterans who served in the military. And those who are serving now. Those humans who put their lives on hold to protect and defend our way of life. No matter what we (or they) may think about the politics of where and what battles they may be call into, they serve.
Today, while celebrating Memorial Day, I thought you might like to meet some veterans and learn their stories, collected by Brandon Stanton for his blog Humans of New York.
I first heard about Brandon Stanton and Humans of New York, listening to Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! He was a guest of the quiz. Fascinated by his project—which has become quite a lucrative career—I dug deeper. Humans of New York began as a photography project in 2010.
Brandon’s “initial goal was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants.” Somewhere along the way, Brandan wrote, “I began to interview my subjects in addition to photographing them. And alongside their portraits, I'd include quotes and short stories from their lives.”
For the series “Invisible Wounds” Brandon interviewed veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
