How can I write about Memorial Day and the importance of honoring those valiant young people (yes, for the most part, they were young) who stood between their beloved homes and freedom? A simple thank you to these courageous men and women seems completely inadequate.
If I knew nothing at all about freedom, if I had never known anything except tyranny, I might wonder what it is that makes men and women willing to give up their own dreams, the comfort of their homes, and, at the risk of their lives, stand between their families and the threat of dictators. I would conclude that freedom must be paramount in the hearts and minds of people who are willing to put it above their own comfort and safety.
I am amazed when I think about that fledgling group of colonists who dared defy the greatest power in the world, the best-equipped army and say No to King George III whose determination was to punish these upstarts by a prolonged war that would finally bring them to their knees. That didn’t happen. The colonists had determination, courage, an unquenchable spirit that yearned for freedom and they had a man named George Washington.
As I think about our country and our defenders of freedom, I think about those far-seeing, wise men who wrote our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution and I know they were directed by a higher Power. They were directed by God and our country has been blessed by God. By the way, America was founded upon Christian precepts, not any other religion’s precepts. We were and are a Christian nation and we forget that at our own peril.
WWI poster
Everett Day, WWI
Americans have fought in many wars since the Revolution and freedom has exacted a high price. Many lives have been given, much blood shed, many hearts broken down through the years. To me, the most incomprehensible and divisive of all the wars was the Civil War. I am not convinced that it was inevitable. It tore our country apart and the wounds are still visible. I ask myself why reasonable men, Americans, could not sit down and come to an agreement. Why could not Mr. Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, have sat down together at a table, talked, discussed, tried to see things through the other person’s eyes, and prevented the loss of thousands of American lives?
Last night, as I watched on television a program honoring veterans, I saw those few men who are still alive who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. And, I had to turn off the television as old news clips were played of that landing. Those men truly went ashore into the jaws of death. So, how do you thank soldiers for doing that?
I can say thank you to those of my family who have served in the Army, Navy and in the Marine Corps, Wes, Thurman, Tracy, Richard, Clint. And, I do. Their selflessness, their heroism, their courage and determination cannot be measured.
As America sets aside a special day to honor veterans of all the wars from Lexington to the present day, I conclude that the best way I can say thank you to the men and women who have given or were willing to give all they have for me, is to be ever watchful of that wonderful thing called freedom. Through the years, there have been those outside our country and within our borders whose goal in life is to take away that freedom. Sometimes the danger comes in insidious ways under the guise of “keeping us safe”. Sometimes, the threats are from more direct, violent sources. As an American, I should be aware, alert, know what the Constitution says and defend it. I can say thank you best by honoring those who have gone before and by being sure our freedoms in this blessed Nation stand intact for those who will come after.
great tribute!!!
Thank you, Helen.