It’s a little too cold, wet, and bleak for most people around here to be out having fun, but that makes it a good time to remember the purpose of the holiday today: to honor those who fought and died to preserve the freedoms we take for granted. All the more important because some Americans — especially our leaders — are increasingly willing to abandon those freedoms, and even dishonor those who died for our freedom.
For a good Memorial Day read, Glenn Reynolds linked this WSJ piece by Navy SEAL Leif Babbin: “A Tradition of Sacrifice, From Yorktown to Ramadi: It was not the Declaration of Independence that gave us freedom but the Continental Army.”
I especially liked this:
The dead did not wish to be martyred. They no doubt longed to return to their homes and families. But they believed in the “glorious cause,” something far greater than themselves. Despite knowing the dangers before them, they followed Gen. Washington into the fray even when victory seemed hopeless and the cause all but lost.
In America today, there are those who believe that under no circumstances is war the answer. Violence only begets more violence, we’re told. The unstated message: Nothing is worth fighting and dying for. History disagrees.
It certainly does. And I think those “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER” bumperstickers (which I still see all over the place) are dishonoring our war dead.
Remember.
Comments
11 responses to “Happy Memorial Day. But please remember!”
Well, but those bumper stickers are right in a way. War isn’t the answer. It’s the question – and the question is “who wins?”
I’m not pro-war (despite a lot who assumed that because of my late blog). I’m just pro-winning if we get stuck in a war.
In Flanders Field – Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”
And the American Answer:
We Shall Keep the Faith
Moina Michael
“Oh! You who sleep in Flanders’ Fields
Sleep sweet – to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw,
And holding high we kept
The faith with those who died.
We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
But lends a lustre to the red
On the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders’ fields.
And now the torch and Poppy red
We wear in honour of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught:
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders’ fields.”
Remember. We live free because so many died.
This is a bit depressing – are you and I the only ones who remember? Surely someone else is old enough to at least know a veteran (dead or alive) of one of our wars?
Eric, are you sure this is a libertarian leaning website? I found the following excerpts posted by a well known libertarian at her blog. I find it hard to believe that libertarian can encompass your thoughtful words honoring our fallen and the hate-filled rant of this miscreant.
Read and weep:
We now have two holidays in the year that serve the same purpose: to impose upon us the lie that all soldiers who fight in any war are always “fighting for our freedom.”
Today, we’re told that every American soldier who ever died in a U.S. government-conducted war is a hero. Another lie. Of course some were heroes. And some were unconscionable jerks, murderous monsters. The majority were just poor saps who were only following orders.
Today we’re ordered to revere the dead. Those who got drafted against their will to serve the purposes of the government-industrial complex. Those who took such cant phrases as “domino theory,” “weapons of mass destruction,” and “they hate us for our freedom” as their substitute for personal investigation and critical thought. Those who died in illegal wars because they didn’t learn, or didn’t care, otherwise. Those who killed non-combatants. Those who were “only following orders” and had no idea what they were actually fighting for.
We’re supposed to cease thinking and call them all “heroes.”
No thank you. Today (and every day), though I join in mourning the dead,[yeah, right]…that sacrifice has been for nothing. Nothing.
I won’t provide a link to the bitch. She’s on the same level as Jane Fonda. Bitch isn’t a strong enough epithet, but the other one that comes to mind isn’t fit for this site.
Thank you Kathy for posting “In Flanders Field”. My father was a veteran of WWI, as well as my step-father.
My father is a veteran of WWII – a bunch of my great uncles and both my grandfathers were WWI vets. How could I not post it?
P.S. – And I’ve known (and cared about) those who died in every war since – except Grenada…which I’m not sure qualifies as an actual war…(police action?)
Thanks Kathy, but I cannot believe that you and I the only ones who remember!
BTW, I’ve had at least a couple of posts about that Flanders field poem. It’s great.
Indeed it is…and it explains why the VFW sells (fake) poppies for donations–near Memorial Day and Veterans day, both. I always hunt them down and buy one (for at least three times the cost – more if I have the money. I tell them to give the others I bought to a Vet who can’t afford one.)
Remember one huge rally against the war in Iraq during 2003? Reporters were breathless in reporting how many hundreds of thousands of people attended. Nay, millions! NPR and many other stations broadcast speeches from it all weekend.
The best report of the turnout put it in perspective. “More people go to see the movie ‘Kangaroo Jack’ than attend peace rally.”