I wrote a short post about Memorial Day in 2007 that remains relevant today.
Despite my apparent cynicism, Memorial Day has always meant something to me. Having grown up in the house of a WWII combat veteran, Purple Heart and Bronze Star, I was reared on the stories of pain, sacrifice and honor in the name of our country. A bit jingoistic, perhaps, but when honor comes at the price of a human life, it is something worthy of our remembrance.
The catch phrase today is that freedom is not free. But what is this freedom that is worthy of fighting, and dying, for? To show our respect for those who gave their lives for freedom, those of us who remain should be willing to stand up for that freedom and defend it. We don’t fight for a particular President. We don’t fight for a political party. We don’t fight for some transitory policy. We fight for enduring freedom. Don’t give up the fight. Take a moment today to think about it. Others have given their lives for it. It’s not much to do.
Don’t give up the fight, and honor everyone who gave their lives to protect our freedom. Let no one, right or left, take it away.
Missed you.
Daniel Butterfield.
Taps
“Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest
God is nigh”
“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” — Abraham Lincoln
https://youtu.be/dpnUpPVABBo
I don’t understand why people get so mad about protestors burning the flag. As a long as they purchased the flag, I don not care.
I have been to war as has my father. We took an oath the protect and defend the Constitution, not some piece of colorful fabric. Besides, in war you fight for your friends more than any noble value.
How long those Constitution values remain, that in no longer a task for my generation. I have concerns.
Memories of friends whose faces are forever young.
I think of my father on Memorial Day. He was mustered out of the Army 4F with asthma but the men he joined with from Notre Dame in 1944 were sent to Anzio. 26 souls. He seldom referred to it but when he did it was after a beer or three. Grim. “Slaughtered to a man. You would be half of what you are today.”
Happy Memorial day, SJ.