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May 29, 2006
In Memoriam
Today, as we do every last Monday in May, we pause to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. I will beg your indulgence as I do so here on this blog -- as well as remembering what it is that those men and women died for.
There are hundreds of thousands of Americans who were sent to fight wars on foreign shores -- some in self-defense, others in pursuit of political aims both noble and ignoble -- who never came home. Men on the beaches of Normandy, on the shores of Anzio, who fought at the Pusan perimeter, who died on Iwo Jima. There were teenagers who gave their lives at Hue and Khe Sanh. There were Marines who died in their barracks in Beirut. There were modern day heroes like Pat Tillman who bravely went to serve in Afghanistan to defend against an attack on our nation. There are those brave American men and women who have carried out their orders in Iraq and have done their duties and in some cases given their lives.
How many of us could say, no matter how brave or patriotic we are, that we would willingly and without hesitation have stormed ashore to near-certain death at Omaha Beach? Have forced our way ashore in the shooting galleries of the Pacific? How many could have kept our wits about us at Inchon, or during Tet, or on the streets of Fallujah?
No matter what one has thought over the decades of American foreign policy, today is not the day for those debates. Today is for acknowledging those who gave their lives in the service of our military. For remembering all that was lost. There were generations at home who never got to marry their sweethearts, their first loves. There were mothers and fathers who had to bury their sons (and later daughters). There were children who were never born; jobs never held; promotions never achieved; vacations never taken; gold watches never bestowed upon retirement. There were tears shed for the tears that never had the chance to be shed. There were lives never lived. And we, in our relative comfort today, owe those lives a remembrance and thanks.
There is one more thing that we owe our fallen. We owe it to them to fully live our rights as Americans -- to understand and exercise the rights guaranteed us by the Constitution. Those hundreds of thousands of military members sacrificed their lives -- literally everything they had -- to protect our rights as Americans; we must honor that sacrifice by living out those rights. Not just the popular ones, either.
We would dishonor their service and sacrifice if we fell into the trap laid by some today: the mirage that there is only one way to be patriotic, only one "American" way to think, that dissenting opinion is un-American. Dissent is patriotic. Dissent is American. Questioning authority is the American way; our nation exists today because a band of independent thinkers refused to think as the government wished them to, and they spoke out. They acted. Dissenting and speaking out is the most fundamental of American ideals, and doing so is the highest tribute we can pay to the memories of those who gave their lives.
Going along with what's popular is easy; agreement with the government enforced via intimidation and questioned loyalty is not freedom. The dustbin of history is littered with regimes, from the Nazis to the Communists to third world dictatorships, that attempted to enforce 'patriotism' that way. I can think of nothing better to honor the sacrifices of our fallen than to fully exercise all of the freedoms they died to protect.
As a nation, we can do better by them. Citizenship is more than getting our information from 8 second sound bites and having our opinions fed to us by talking heads. It's more than tuning in to the latest "reality" television sensation or Hollywood remake. It's more than whining about politicians even though we couldn't even be bothered to vote. We owe our nation better than that. We owe our fallen better than that.
So on this Memorial Day. I say this to those brave men and women who gave everything so that I might be free: thank you. Thank you for having the courage to do what you did, and the belief in our freedoms to serve and die for us. I promise to honor you -- today and always -- by fully appreciating the freedoms you died to ensure that I would have, and by fully exercising those freedoms. I'll do my best to make sure that you did not die in vain.
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Comments
With this post, we understand fully your success in public speaking.
Well done, and a belated happy memorial day.
Posted by: Cuzin Jose at May 30, 2006 11:11 AM
Thanks Mudge, Great post.
I spent some time yesterday looking at the images of WWII, Korea & Vietnam by David Douglas Duncan:
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online/ddd/gallery/war/
...simple, powerful
Posted by: usefulguy at May 30, 2006 02:32 PM
These are lovely thoughts--thanks for sharing. My son has had the honor of marching in our tiny little town's annual Memorial Day for the last few years. To help him and the rest of his scout buddies understand what an honor it truly is, his scout leader sent us a link to a nicely done video: http://www.managedmusic.com/beforeyougo.html.
Posted by: T at May 30, 2006 09:27 PM
