Here's a local newspaper clipping from some 60+ years ago. Long before we decided to become an empire, we reluctantly joined a global conflict to fight rapidly expanding Fascism. Back then the nation, once attacked, rolled up it's sleeves and got to work - everyone -- and we had a clear under-standing of what we were fighting for.
My grandfather worked in a war plant, his brother served in uniform. My grandmothers three brothers, cited in this clipping, all served as well. It took about four years, but we met the challenge and brought peace to Europe and Asia.
Sadly we now have a military that is the only hope for an economically wasted lower and middle class - who's sons and daughters strive for honor in a less than honorable world. Billions of dollars are tossed around and war has become just a part of our day to day routine. However, 65 years ago, we were all involved in the fight and we wept, prayed and rejoiced together.
Today we bomb Afghani villages to bring democracy and freedom to their country, often killing innocent civilians in the process. Iraq is still mostly gutted and charred from all the years of that pointless war. Dick Cheney and his cronies have filled their war chests though. We repeatedly scorch the earth half way around the globe and here at home we worry about who's winning the American Idol contest. The children of our lower and middle classes are killed by roadside bombs and guerrilla fighters, or come home permanently wounded or scarred to a broken VA system and no jobs or future.
So on this Memorial Day, not only due I pay honor to those members of the Great Generation who sacrificed and won. I also remember the thousands of young men and women who have sacrificed for a much less honorable cause yet have bravely maintained their sense of honor and duty.
End the wars now! Peace.
1 comment:
As your father, I am very proud of you for the way you honored your great uncles.
We always say that those men and women, who donned the uniform, sacrificed so that we could have our freedom. They came from all walks of life and grew up with a moral code that fostered fair play, honor, and a sense of duty to God and country.
However, as you suggested in your blog, some amongst us would sacrifice all of our honor in order to torture prisoners of our "War on Terror."
Cheney goes so far to claim that this torture actually saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of American lives. Of course, this cannot be proven. It reminds me of the rooster that claimed responsibility for the sunrise.
PoP
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