A Memorial Day Message

Once again, Memorial Day approaches. My wife and I spent Saturday enjoying the pleasure of her brother and dad’s company—both veterans we are so very grateful returned home from too many battlefields from Korea and from the much more recent past. Too many of their brothers and sisters in arms did not, their legacy a marker and a flag at home and in distant shores--and our freedom, paid for in full by their priceless sacrifice. Think of them these brave men and women too many of whom left this life before fully crossing the threshold of adulthood on Memorial Day. Think of them when you see Old Glory fluttering in the wind of freedom. Think of them when you see a flag signifying their service and their sacrifice on their graves in every cemetery. Think of them when you hear the liquid cascades of children’s care-free laughter. Think of them when you thank God for your blessings. Never forget them or their families who forever feel the tangible pain of their absence. May God bless our fallen warriors and may He look after their families. And may God bless all of our men and women in uniform, active duty and retired, who have served and serve with honor.

Hear hear, Victor!

5/24

                         Victor..

                                    I agree, when I bought my flag 3 ' X 5 ' a few years ago I made dam
sure it was made in the USA and I fly it every holiday and at this time Memorial Day I fly it
from Friday to Monday at dusk then it comes down till July 4th. I have heard many people 
especially in my compound make a remark " I don't have to fly a flag to prove I'm an Amercan !
I sometimes what this means I don't fly it to prove who I am I fly it out of respect for those fought in every war you can imagine, God Bless Our Troops....As you can see I have a special love for England.

                                                                    Cheers.....Joe......

"Their legacy a marker and a flag at home and in distant shores--and our freedom, paid for in full by their priceless sacrifice. Think of them these brave men and women too many of whom left this life before fully crossing the threshold of adulthood on Memorial Day. "
 Yes, it is sad to lost young people in distant  shores- when their places and duty  was on the shore of their own country. 
The Korea, Vietnam, Irak, Libya, for what. For what. What this all used?
Getting a great  havoc with an awful  lot of lost of lives, frankly speaking, all them innocent, so goes those Crusades of the holy democracy -with no victory but just turmoil. With except the war against  natzi- germany, there is no a single war America was able to overcome

NEVER FORGET...
REMEMBER THEM EVERYDAY, Not just on Memorial Day!
Our Government sends our kids to fight their wars and forgets them when they come home...
Why do these returning vets have to count on charitable organizations like Wounded Warriors and Paralyized Veterons tocare for them...WHY ISN'T OUR GOVERNMENT WHO SENT THEM IS HARM'S WAY TAKING CARE OFTHEM FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES LIKE THEY DO FOR THE JERKS THAT SENT THEM.
I am proud of my service and would do it again in a minute...I might try and duck faster though.

GOD BLESS ALL WHO SERVED, SERVING AND WILL SERVE!

Soupbox back in the closet

Agree Don.  I am saddened when I hear or see Veterans suffering for lack of care.  They feel that people "just don't care" once their service is over.  The benefits of serving are promoted by Recruiters.  Strange how those benefits are not mentioned upon discharge from the service.  Furthermore, when one applies for the "promised" benefits the hassle one needs to go through to get them is excessive. 
A close veteran friend (now deceased) had health problems.  Not having insurance, he lost his home (and his business) due to medical costs.  He was self-employed with a wood-working shop.  It was later determined that his cancer was likely caused from the dust of his business.  Once he was financially wiped-out, his wife left him as he could no longer support a family.  Eventually someone told him to contact the Veterans Administration and he did.  The location for treatment was 150 miles distant and it required someone to take him for treatment.  He received treatment from that distant facility, but it was too late.  He went through the process of chemo-therapy and received pain medication in his final days. Benefits are available and can be used if one is aware of them and fortunate enough to be located near a facility.  With a universal health-care program, treatment would be available in the area one lives.  If they can send our men/women around the world to serve, certainly they can send them to a facility for healthcare when they return.  When we think of Memorial Day, how we care for our Veterans should be included with those memories. 
At our annual Men's Choir Concert this past Saturday, we invited a neighboring choir to participate.  I met a retired US Army veteran from that choir.  We intend to get together soon.  It matters little what branch of the service one belonged.  There is always something in common on which to base a friendship.  Veterans try to help each other and that applies to getting needed information.

It is easy to fly a flag  and  proclaim how wonderful our vetererans are--far harder to care for them. I want no involvement in foreign wars.
We are bogged down for years with the aftermath of wars we should have steered clear of.

What Don J Stephens said:

Memorial Day is about remembering the sacrifice of those who died in war defending our way of life. The wisdom of the wars and the lack of support for veterans are crucial issues--for another day. Today we should reflect on the sacrifice of the men and women who served with honor and died with honor fighting for their country. That sacrifice is not diminished by the lack of wisdom of the politicians that committed them to unwise conflicts--or failed to commit them to wise ones. Flying the flag and acknowledging that sacrifice is indeed easy, which begs the question of why so many people fail to do either even once a year. There is no question but that we all--and especially our government--need to do more for our wounded warriors, our veterans generally, and the families of those we should be honoring today. But giving thanks and taking a moment to honor them whether by flying the flag, by a quiet prayer or by a simple and heartfelt public message is the least any of us can do who live in countries kept free by the sacrifice of those whose lives were given in support of freedom. Honor demands it, at least for me.

Victor you are right about Memorial Day being a day to set aside to honor those that died.  I do honor their sacrifice...everyday.  My flag flys 24/364...Old Glory goes up on the 4th of July and a new flag goes up on the 5th.  I've replaced my 25' flag pole three times in the thirty some years I've been in this house.  I'm guess I'm just a bitter old man that gets upset by so many people looking at Memorial Day weekend as the Bar-B-Que and Indy 500 weekend and don't even think of the real meaning.  I am bitter seeing so many people taking for granted what all those men and women (who were just kids) died for and can't take a day to say thank you.  I realize I may look at it different...for me it's very personal, the names of five very close, dear friends, who I laughed with, cryed with, lived with, trained with and fought beside have their names on the Wall in DC.  So yes, I honor those that died for our country everyday and will continue to raise my voice about the shabby way those that served and lived are treated by our government and people in general.  


It is the Veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the Veteran, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Veteran, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Veteran, who salutes the Flag, 
It is the Veteran, who serves under the Flag, 
To be buried by the flag, 
So the protester can burn the flag.


NEVER FORGET!

Hear, hear Don.

"The day of the trial, which will in some measure, decide the fate of America,is near at hand," wrote General George Washington in mid August 1776 from his headquarter in New York.
Apart from the wars with the Indians, I cannot see any other war, but that which took place 1776 when the British navy appeared off the coast of America.  Since those days there has never been war on the American soil, the homes and civilian has never been bombed by enemy planes or shelling by the  enemy artillery, No any American bridge have never blew up or an American women or girl been raped by enemy soldier on the American soil, so fight for they country sound very odd in this context, for the fighting for my country men; a soldier is defending his homeland

We've had many wars since the Revolutionary War right here at home, not all honorable, including the Civil War, and opportunistic wars against Mexico and Spain among others. We've also fought wars on foreign soil both out of selfish and selfless motivations. Were that not the case, all of Europe, the Americas, Australia and Africa would now be speaking German (and perhaps Japanese depending on how the spoils of war were split up, and assuming of course WWII would still have taken place). The incompetence of our civilian leadership may still lead us to some day have to learn Chinese or (less likely) Russian at the point of a gun. Be that as it may, a soldier fights when and where he/she is told. Fighting for one's country with honor, whether at home or abroad, and giving up one's life in the process is what we remember and honor today. Everything else is, frankly, just NOISE.

Sunday I read a story from Guidepost magazine at church summarized as follows:  A boy complained because he had to go to the parade and wave the 10 cent flag his mom bought while his gram went by in her "Gold Star Mother" limo in remembrance of "Uncle Bud" who died in Italy, the family's war hero.  At the required home picnic after, he asked his gram (he was 16) how a boy of 19 could have been a hero.  His gram brought out the tin box with Bud's wallet that contained just a few pictures he'd had with him in that foxhole - his home that he took with him.  The boy thought of the boy in the foxhole with that wallet and had difficulty reconciling that with the famed Uncle Bud who worked harder than anyone to help earn money for his mom when they lost their farm.  'I'll buy you a new farm some day" he had said until he went off to war.  Also in the pictures was "Marie," the girl he planned to marry when he returned.  The boy understood then how the boy in the picture on the mantle in his uniform with his medals was a hero who never married or had his own home but gave all he had so that others would have those opportunities.  He understood that it is not always in "getting" that life has meaning, it is often in giving to a greater ideal that true heroism emerges.  He understood why they went to the parade every year to remember Uncle Bud since he had no wife or children to remember him, and all that represented him at the end of his short life was in that tin box and the picture on the mantle and the parade. Today, the young man and his wife and three children gather their lawn chairs and sit at the edge of the road waving their flags that he bought for a dollar each to remember all the "Uncle Bud's"  and young women who serve their communities and their nation. And he continued to pass to his children the worn out stories of his "Uncle Bud," the family hero.

I think  in the Americans society, there is  a constant palace to the word ' Serve', serve the country, serve the  Church  or something else. There are  also certain similarities between the serve and worship. When I yesterday saw from tv, how  a noisy crowd of Iranians was sowing their loyalties to their leaders by waving their firsts ready for service I couldn't but wondered how that all have the  same sound everywhere - sorry, but although Kipling said once' The east is east, and west is west, they never meet'. I'm afraid in this case the east and the west resemble very must each other.

Good point, Harry.  The resemblence is there and each believes his/her cause is the just one.

Victor D. Lopez wrote:

Memorial Day is about remembering the sacrifice of those who died in war defending our way of life. The wisdom of the wars and the lack of support for veterans are crucial issues--for another day. Today we should reflect on the sacrifice of the men and women who served with honor and died with honor fighting for their country. That sacrifice is not diminished by the lack of wisdom of the politicians that committed them to unwise conflicts--or failed to commit them to wise ones. Flying the flag and acknowledging that sacrifice is indeed easy, which begs the question of why so many people fail to do either even once a year. There is no question but that we all--and especially our government--need to do more for our wounded warriors, our veterans generally, and the families of those we should be honoring today. But giving thanks and taking a moment to honor them whether by flying the flag, by a quiet prayer or by a simple and heartfelt public message is the least any of us can do who live in countries kept free by the sacrifice of those whose lives were given in support of freedom. Honor demands it, at least for me.

Very well said.

I know, I know the dominating individual drive in American lifestyle is not staying alive, but getting ahead, it is progressive moving from low paid to better paid, more comfortable home, and more and more. Of course it is will be the highest value for many people and should be  defend,  but what this all benefit when the end is in hand and one day you must died, vanish for ever .  “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the
    labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and
    vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."
Anyway the human life is  very short for any permanent style, I am seventy and I remember when I was a child  and went to bed dreaming that when I will grown up I will be wealthy, the night has gone quickly past and I have woken up and found  being much more that adult- still not wealthy nor well off.
There are many lifestyles to be protected, but which of the is the right one?  We  don't  know  for sure.
Jesus Christ had one lifestyle and the value of it. Who followed, he felt it be the right one and joined it. 
I put here one marterpice of Tony Gatlif, it prepesent also lifestyle and above all -lifestyle of totaal liberty    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlTdGWDnl5U