Memorial Day & Hunger Games

This past week my son Freddie and I saw the movie, "Hunger Games."  I know this was a movie many of  you saw weeks ago and I am on the late train.  The story is set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and a girl from the 12 districts that make up their universe to fight until their death on live television.  The heroine in the movie, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers to take her younger sister's place when she's selected for the latest match.  There are many things that caught my attention in this movie, and like any type of "war" people hate death and ultimately have a compassionate heart towards mankind.

In the movie, Katniss who is from District 12, was helped by a young little black girl that is from District 11 ( the purpose of  "Hunger Games" is  one out of the 24 people that go in will come out a live) so for this young girl from District 11 to help Katniss from District 12, she is sacrificing the possibility of her own life.  A friendship develops and when the young girl from District 11 is killed, Katniss shows compassion towards her through a kind and loving burial.  This also sets the stage for Katniss to have purpose and have a heart to survive.
 

This week I wanted to share a thought regarding Memorial Day and the movie, "Hunger Games" stayed on my mind.  The two have a theme that is intertwined.  We all want to live for a purpose and to survive.

 
Memorial Day is a federal holiday set aside to remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.  This holiday has evolved and is now celebrated in several ways from picnics, to fireworks and the decorating of loved ones graves.  As I continued to do some research on this holiday, I also learned something I never knew, blacks in Charleston, also known as "Freedmen,"  organized a May Day ceremony covered by the New York Tribune Newspaper.  Our history tells us that "our" loved ones also served and died in serving our country dating back to the Civil War.   Frederick Douglass said, "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."

Although "Hunger Games" was a fictional story, the theme of mankind caring for one another even in the worse of circumstances, is the same even in real life war.   Peter the young man from District 12 in the movie, made the statement that  he did not want to lose who he was, and  even if he was to die, he didn't want "them" (the ones in charge) to think they owned him. 

 
In closing, I want to say thank you to everyone who has fought and died to keep all of us free!
 
Healing Without Hate:  It's a choice. It's a lifestyle. Pass it on!
 

Visit www.WendyGladney.com &  www.forgivingforliving.org.   You can email her at wendy.gladney@gmail.com. Also follow her blog:  Wendygladney.blogspot.com. Wendy is featured on Radio Free 102.3 KJLH on Dominique DiPrima's Front Page Friday Mornings @ 5:00am.