Memorial Day

Memorial Day. It is a holiday that people take for granted. A free Monday off to start the summer. Picnics, backyard barbecues, a trip to the lake. The true meaning gets lost. But I don’t want to lecture you on that. I want to talk about something a bit different.

Memorial Day is a day set aside to remember those who died in defense of the United States. The men and women who gave their lives for freedom’s sake. The honored fallen.

But I’m not going to celebrate them with this post (though they are most worthy of celebration). No, today I want to acknowledge a group of people who did something for the honored fallen that is usually not celebrated. But they deserve some accolades none the less.

Sex workers.

Does it seem strange that I would want to celebrate sex workers on a day set aside for celebrating our fallen heroes? Well, it shouldn’t. Why do I want to celebrate the sex workers? Because for many, many of the fallen, sex workers gave them their last moments of peace and joy before going off to fight and die for their country.

There has long been a connection between sex workers and soldiers. It goes back as far as the history of warfare. Men, knowing that they were marching off to a likely death, would seek out the comforts of a woman. For those without wives or girlfriends, that would often mean finding a professional.

How many men (and possibly women) have enjoyed the pleasures of sex workers before going off to combat? Millions would be my guess.

Now the cynics would argue that the sex workers were just taking advantage of these warriors, taking advantage of their fear of what was to come to gain a bit of money. And certainly there would always have been some of that. But there would also have been more. Sex workers are not stupid. They are not uncaring. Many would have realized that they were providing more than just a sexual release to these soldiers. They would have realized they were providing comfort to a human being who was afraid of what was coming. A warrior facing his mortality, knowing that he was going to be fighting for his life, the lives of his fellow warriors, and for his country. A future that might be very short, because others were doing the same.

Such a realization would have softened the heart of many a sex worker. I am certain that many ladies gave a bit more to these warriors than they otherwise would have, knowing that many would not return. What they provided was not just sex. It was comfort. Compassion. Caring. It was a bit of joy and happiness. A found memory to keep a man warm at night.

So on this Memorial Day, I salute you—the sex workers who have been there for our men and women. Thank you for being there for our heroes. They fought for you as much as they did for anyone else.