CELEBRATING MEMORIAL DAY
Remembering the Sacrifice
“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
The first national observance of Memorial Day was on May 30, 1868. It was called Decoration Day and honored the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. Mary Ann Williams is credited with originating the "idea of strewing the graves of Civil War soldiers—Union and Confederate" with flowers. After the World Wars, it became a day of remembrance for all members of the US Military who fought and died in service.
Though too many of us celebrate it as a day off from work, filled with family and friends, barbecues and parties, it is so much more. It’s easy to forget the sacrifices that far too many have made, and still make, to preserve our freedom. But it is just that freedom that makes our lives so easy and so safe.
Our Responsibility
While few of us will ever be called to serve, and even fewer to lay down our lives, the fact that men and women continue to serve with bravery and honor means that it is critical that we all recognize and honor that sacrifice, not just today, but every day.
Does it give you as much pain as it does me to see homeless vets and permanently damaged vets who struggle to just survive? When I was a teenager, we visited Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, bringing magazines, books, cookies and ourselves. Mostly, they had us talk to amputees who were struggling to find a way back to normalcy. Some shared how girlfriends and even families had abandoned them. It shook me. We couldn’t do much, and most of us were too young to really understand the depth of the tragedy of the Viet Nam war.
Years later, I had many friends who had survived the war, but all had scars. While we honor the dead, we cannot forget those who survived, but were changed by the experience, many in ways we can’t comprehend. One survived an attack because he traded duties with a fellow who was too tired to stand guard. The tent they shared was bombed that night.
We owe the living, the damaged and the dead two things. One, to be sure that they get all they need to make their lives livable again. Donate to Tunnel to Towers
https://t2t.org
#tunnel2towers and to VA organizations like Wounded Warrior, Gary Sinese Foundation, DAV, PVA and more. Make this a priority. Most vets are underserved, and it has gotten worse with the border crisis. Many groups report vets being pushed out of homes and being denied support so that more money is available to pay for every need of illegals. That is criminal. Toss some money into a homeless vet’s cap, if you see one. Understand that our very lives depended on these peoples’ sacrifice.
But even more important, we must be vigilant and take action against those who would destroy America. The list is huge and grows constantly. Beyond our foreign enemies, like Iran, Iraq, China, terrorist groups like Hamas, there are other, more dangerous enemies. These are the Americans who hate this country and seek to undermine it.
First up, progressive politicians who seek to undermine everything that makes this country great. They seek to impose socialism, mostly to give themselves more power. They love the idea of a CCP-based social credit system, where your rights can be stripped from you if you don’t comply. These politicians and their spokes-robots (the mainstream media) have stories to tell you how they are saving the planet, while destroying each and everyone’s prosperity, freedom and choice. They attack our Constitution at every juncture. It isn’t just the 1st and 2nd Amendment under attack. They have the most power, but, in some ways, they are not the most dangerous.
The ones who must be called to account are the larger population of America’s enemies—the young we see protesting against Israel, the ones who tore down cities playing at God at BLM rallies and others who want to “fix” America. The ones demanding socialism, without understanding a thing about how they manage to attend top universities, have the prosperity they enjoy and the freedom to even get out there and make a scene. We can’t tolerate this behavior, nor their views if we want to save the country. This isn’t just an adolescent tantrum.
Today, make a pledge to talk to those who will listen. To tell them of what their lives cost others and how they are pissing it away, trying to make the country into something that can take away everything they have. They are dangerous because they are our future, and they are so woefully uninformed and uneducated that what they dream of may become reality.
I’m scared. Are you?
"Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it."- Unknown
