Memorial Day - Some Thoughts and Opinions

[Richard]

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Saturday, May 23, 2009

This Memorial Day weekend, Americans will gather on lawns and porches, fire up the grill, and enjoy the company of family, friends, and neighbors. But this is not only a time for celebration, it is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home – in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world.

On Friday, I traveled to Annapolis, where I spoke at the Commencement of the United States Naval Academy. It was an honor to address some of America’s newest sailors and Marines as their Commander-in-Chief. Looking out at all of those young men and women, I was reminded of the extraordinary service that they are rendering to our country. And I was reminded, too, of all of the sacrifices that their parents, siblings, and loved ones make each day on their behalf and on our behalf.

Our fighting men and women – and the military families who love them – embody what is best in America. And we have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us.

And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve. That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear – and all who have worn – the proud uniform of our country.

And that is a sacred trust I am committed to keeping as President of the United States. That is why I will send our servicemen and women into harm’s way only when it is necessary, and ensure that they have the training and equipment they need when they enter the theater of war.

That is why we are building a 21st century Department of Veterans Affairs with the largest single-year funding increase in three decades. It’s a commitment that will help us provide our veterans with the support and benefits they have earned, and expand quality health care to a half million more veterans.

That is why, this week, I signed a bill that will eliminate some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense projects – reform that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops, and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.

And that is why we are laying a new foundation for our economy so that when our troops return home and take off the uniform, they can find a good job, provide for their families, and earn a college degree on a Post-9/11 GI Bill that will offer them the same opportunity to live out their dreams that was afforded our greatest generation.

These are some of the ways we can, must, and will honor the service of our troops and the sacrifice of their families. But we must also do our part, not only as a nation, but as individuals for those Americans who are bearing the burden of wars being fought on our behalf. That can mean sending a letter or a care package to our troops overseas. It can mean volunteering at a clinic where a wounded warrior is being treated or bringing supplies to a homeless veterans center. Or it can mean something as simple as saying "thank you" to a veteran you pass on the street.

That is what Memorial Day is all about. It is about doing all we can to repay the debt we owe to those men and women who have answered our nation’s call by fighting under its flag. It is about recognizing that we, as a people, did not get here by accident or good fortune alone. It’s about remembering the hard winter of 1776, when our fragile American experiment seemed doomed to fail; and the early battles of 1861 when a union victory was anything but certain; and the summer of 1944, when the fate of a world rested on a perilous landing unlike any ever attempted.

It’s about remembering each and every one of those moments when our survival as a nation came down not simply to the wisdom of our leaders or the resilience of our people, but to the courage and valor of our fighting men and women. For it is only by remembering these moments that we can truly appreciate a simple lesson of American life – that what makes all we are and all we aspire to be possible are the sacrifices of an unbroken line of Americans that stretches back to our nation’s founding.

That is the meaning of this holiday. That is a truth at the heart of our history. And that is a lesson I hope all Americans will carry with them this Memorial Day weekend and beyond.

Thank you.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_...heir-Families/

[Richard]

Memory, War, and the Memory of War
Louis Bickford, Huffington Post, 21 May 2009

Memorial Day is meant to remind us of the hardship of war, and on this Memorial Day I find myself asking how we will remember the "war on terror." What will our children's children know about this period?

We choose in the present how future generations will remember the past. One of the great contributions of the human rights movement is showing that how we remember and memorialize trauma in the past -- torture under brutal regimes in Argentina or during the apartheid era of South Africa, the evil committed during the Holocaust -- can help prevent abuses in the future.

What does it mean to choose how to remember? Memories come flooding back, often unwilled, sometimes unwelcomed. The raw material of memory resembles dreams, uncontrolled and full of non-sequiturs.

But consider the terrible affliction of "Funes the Memorious,"a character in a Jorge Luis Borges short story. He remembers everything, every shadow on every leaf on every tree, and he is thus immobilized and must sit in the dark to avoid sensory experience. In real life, societies, like individuals, cannnot remember everything. We organize collective memory, purposefully or not.

Imagining the future, we may choose to remember the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, more in terms of heroism than error, since that is the tendency of all nations. We may remember the irreparable loss of life of those who went to fight, and we will think about their families and the suffering they endured. Our national memory may focus on the deaths of the Americans, in the same way that our memories of Vietnam focus largely on American causalities.

Will we remember that there was a place called Abu Ghraib on the dusty outskirts of Baghdad, and that torture took place there, for which we were responsible? Will we remember that we acquiesced to a terrible policy put forward by our leaders and with the endorsement of many -- Democrats, Republicans, journalists, legal scholars -- that allowed for us to ignore international and American law prohibiting torture?

If we care about the future, we must, first, clarify the truth. Second, we must find ways of clearly condemning torture wherever and whenever it was committed. Third, we must take steps so that we remember our rejection of those acts. Our thinking about future memory is one way of preventing torture in the future.

We need to know the full truth, including who among us was complicit in allowing this to happen, even if it means looking inward to our own communities. Why did not more of us protest more loudly and sooner? Why did so many permit government lawyers to pervert the law for dubious ends, making a mockery out of the idea of reasonable legal interpretation?

We must engage in a serious inquiry and introspection with the goal of accountability. Journalists and scholars should continue their investigative research and analysis of what has transpired. A nonpartisan commission of inquiry should also be a part of this picture, as should the continued declassification of government documents. We should also help others transform Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other sites of torture into sites of learning for the future. Seen from the perspective of memory, fair trials of those most responsible for wrong-doing are essential. The documents produced by trials would be vital elements of a true historical record. And trials are the strongest way of representing moral condemnation of wrongful behavior.

Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, identified three forms of history: antiquarian, monumental, and critical. The first sees history as quaint, curious, distant and irrelevant to our current lives. The second celebrates victory, heroism and tragedy in the past as precursors to current glory. The third suggests an engagement with the memory of the past, seeing the linkages between past, present and future and seeking to understand them.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is seeking to convince Americans that torture was justified. It is clear that he is interested in how this period is remembered; he is speaking both to us and to our progeny. He wants the history books and national memory to validate his time in office, and he is making active attempts to guarantee that they do. He wants to create a monumental history of the period.

If former officials succeed in making us forget that there was torture and that it was contrary to our values, they will establish impunity for the present and also for the future. That must not be allowed to happen. Extreme violations of human rights in any context, including a war, are too important to forget. We want future generations to remember that we insisted on accountability for them. Those are good reasons to have Memorial Day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/200...uffpost/205972

[Richard]

2009 VFW MEMORIAL DAY SPEECH


ON MEMORIAL DAY, WE COMMEMORATE AND CELEBRATE WITH HUMBLE REVERENCE, THE MEMORY OF ABSENT COMRADES, ALL OF WHOM EPITOMIZE AND GIVE TRUE MEANING TO THE WORDS, “VALOR, SACRIFICE, LOYALTY AND PERSEVERANCE.” YET, WHILE WE REVERE AND CHERISH THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO HAVE COME BEFORE, WE ARE REMINDED TO DO EVERYTHING WITHIN OUR POWER TO SUPPORT OUR SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, MARINES AND COASTGUARDSMEN.

EQUAL TRIBUTE NEEDS TO BE GIVEN TO ALL WHO ARE SERVING COURAGEOUSLY AROUND THE WORLD, DURING ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING PERIODS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. AT THE SAME TIME, WE PAUSE TO HONOR ALL GENERATIONS OF BRAVE AMERICAN SERVICE—PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR OUR NATION. EACH YEAR, IN TOWNS, CITIES AND VILLAGES ACROSS OUR GREAT LAND, THANKFUL CITIZENS SET ASIDE A SMALL PORTION OF THIS DAY TO PUBLICLY HONOR THE BEST AND NOBLEST OF US ALL, THOSE WHO NO LONGER WALK AMONG US. MEMORIAL DAY IS A DAY OF CONFLICTING EMOTIONS FOR EACH OF US; A BLEND OF PRIDE AND MOURNFULNESS, GRATITUDE AND LOSS, AND A DEEP ABIDING SENSE OF PATRIOTISM.

ON MAY 30, 1870 MAJ. GEN. LOGAN SAID: “LET US THEN ALL UNITE IN THE SOLEMN FEELINGS OF THE HOUR, AND TENDER WITH OUR FLOWERS THE WARMEST SYMPATHIES OF OUR SOULS! LET US REVIVE OUR PATRIOTISM AND STRENGTHEN OUR LOYALTY BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE NOBLE DEAD AROUND US.” AS WE MEASURE THE COUNTLESS EXAMPLES OF „THE NOBLE DEAD‟ AND WEIGH THE SELFLESS DEVOTION OF OUR FALLEN AND WHAT THEY HAVE GIVEN, WE ARE OBLIGATED TO LOOK HARD AT WHO WE ARE AND ASPIRE TO BECOME THE BEST WE CAN BE.
TODAY, WE SHARE A COMMON SORROW, BUT WE ALSO ARE UNITED IN OUR THANKS TO THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION TO A CAUSE MUCH GREATER THAN THEMSELVES.

I AM REMINDED OF JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN, AN AMERICAN COLLEGE PROFESSOR WHO VOLUNTEERED TO SERVE WITH THE UNION ARMY DURING THE CIVIL WAR, ATTAINING THE RANKS OF BRIGADIER GENERAL AND BREVET MAJOR GENERAL. CHAMBERLAIN WAS AWARDED THE MEDAL OF HONOR FOR GALLANTRY AT GETTYSBURG, AND LATER COMMANDED UNION TROOPS AT APPOMATTOX. IN LATER LIFE, HE WAS GOVERNOR OF MAINE AND WAS A FACULTY MEMBER AND PRESIDENT OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE. CHAMBERLAIN SAID ON MEMORIAL DAY IN 1884:

"THOSE WHO WILL, MAY RAISE MONUMENTS OF MARBLE TO PERPETUATE THE FAME OF HEROES. THOSE WHO WILL MAY BUILD MEMORIAL HALLS TO REMIND THOSE WHO SHALL GATHER THERE IN AFTER TIMES

WHAT MANHOOD COULD DO AND DARE FOR RIGHT, AND WHAT HIGH EXAMPLES OF VIRTUE AND VALOR HAVE GONE BEFORE THEM. BUT LET US MAKE OUR OFFERING TO THE EVER-LIVING SOUL. LET US BUILD OUR BENEFACTIONS IN THE EVER-GROWING HEART, THAT THEY SHALL LIVE AND RISE AND SPREAD IN BLESSING BEYOND OUR SIGHT, BEYOND THE KEN OF MAN AND BEYOND THE TOUCH OF TIME." REGRETFULLY, THE SACRIFICES OF OUR COMRADES ARE SOMETIMES FORGOTTEN OR DISREGARDED, ESPECIALLY BY THOSE WHO HAVE GAINED THE MOST FROM IT. HISTORY HAS PROVEN THAT — IF NOT FOR THOSE WE HONOR TODAY — A HEAVY FIST OF TYRANNY AND TERROR WOULD STILL SHACKLE AND STRANGLE MANY COUNTRIES THAT ARE ENJOYING RELATIVELY RECENT FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY.

I THINK THAT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR THOSE WHO TAKE SO MUCH FOR GRANTED TO CONSIDER WHAT ALTERNATIVES WOULD BE AVAILABLE TO THEM, IF NOT FOR THE SELFLESS SACRIFICE OF SO MANY OF OUR COMRADES.
THAT IS WHY WE MUST ALWAYS BE MINDFUL TO GUARD AGAINST REVISIONISTS‟ EFFORTS TO RE-WRITE THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM‟S STRUGGLES. WE MUST BE EVER-VIGILANT TO GUARD AGAINST POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND EXPEDIENCY SERVING THE PAROCHIAL INTERESTS OF THOSE WHO WOULD SEEK TO ULTIMATELY DIMINISH AND LESSEN THE HEROISM AND THE BRAVE DEEDS OF PATRIOTS OF THE PAST, AS WELL AS A NEW GENERATION OF PATRIOTS WHO HAVE BEEN PUT TO THE TEST IN THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM.

AS WE SPEAK OF THE PRESENT AND THE DISTANT PAST IT IS UP TO US TO MAKE SURE THE LEGACY OF OUR NATION‟S FALLEN IS PASSED ON FROM THIS GENERATION TO THE NEXT AND THEN ON TO ALL GENERATIONS BEYOND. WE MUST ENSURE THAT THE YOUTH OF TOMORROW HAVE AN AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF WHOM IT IS THEY SHOULD LIKEWISE HONOR…AND EXACTLY WHY THEY SHOULD HONOR THEM!
AS WE MAINTAIN THE MEMORY AND THE DEEDS OF OUR FALLEN THROUGHOUT THE COMING YEARS, WE NEED TO REMEMBER TO CARE FOR THOSE WHO RETURNED FROM THEIR SERVICE AND THEIR WARS AS WELL. SERVING WITH EQUAL DEDICATION AND VALOR, THEY DESERVE--AND ARE ENTITLED TO-- RECEIVE

ADEQUATE AND PROPER MEDICAL CARE AND COMPENSATION FOR THEIR WOUNDS, INJURIES OR ILLNESSES CONNECTED TO THEIR MILITARY SERVICE. AFTER THE SUPPORT, THE TROOP RALLIES…AFTER THE WELCOME HOME PARADES…AND LONG AFTER THE FLAG-WAVING HAS DIED DOWN, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? DOES OUR OBLIGATION TO REMEMBER THE SACRIFICE, SERVICE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR HEROES END THERE?
OUR RESPONSIBILITY AND OBLIGATION TO OUR VETERANS SHOULD NOT END WHEN THE LAST RALLY IS OVER. VETERANS DESERVE BETTER THAN THAT. THE DEFENDERS OF THIS NATION FULFILLED THEIR DUTY AND

OBLIGATION TO US, AND WE HAVE AN EQUAL DUTY TO HONOR AND FULFILL OUR OBLIGATIONS TO THEM. PROTECTING AND DEFENDING AMERICA‟S IDEALS AND VALUES SHOULD ENTITLE THEM A CHANCE TO ACHIEVE THE AMERICAN DREAM TOO--ONE THAT INCLUDES EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION AND A HOME IN WHICH TO LIVE. THEY DESERVE NOT ONLY OUR GRATITUDE, BUT DESERVE TO BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT AS WELL…HAVEN‟T THEY EARNED IT? TO DO ANYTHING LESS IS TO BETRAY THE MEMORY AND THE SACRIFICE OF OUR DEAD.

LET US LEAVE HERE TODAY KNOWING THAT OUR DESTINY AS A FREE PEOPLE IS ENTIRELY UP TO US. LET

EVERY DEED AND ACT OF EACH OF OUR DAYS, BE GUIDED BY THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR OUR FUTURE FREEDOMS. AND MAY THEIR SACRIFICE CONTINUE TO INSPIRE US AND FILL US WITH HOPE ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

http://www.vfw.org/PR/Speeches/Memor...Day%202009.pdf

[Richard]

The American Cause this Memorial Day
Lee wishing, 20 May 2009

"Based upon our observations of American soldiers and their officers captured in this war, the following facts are evidenced,” a foreign intelligence officer wrote. "There is little knowledge or understanding, even among United States university graduates, of American political history and philosophy ... of safeguards to freedom; and of how these things supposedly operate within their own system."

Believe it or not those words weren't written by an Al Qaeda operative. They were written during the Korean War (1950-1953) by the chief intelligence officer of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army in North Korea. In a 1957 response to these remarks, Russell Kirk wrote, "Many Americans are badly prepared for their task of defending their own convictions ... against the grim threat of armed ideology.... And in our age, good-natured ignorance is a luxury none of us can afford."

As we pause this Memorial Day to honor those who died to preserve our freedom, it's a good time to take stock of the threats to our nation. I believe that the greatest threat is internal decay that results from a lack of knowledge of those things that make America great.

The Chinese officer's gloating inspired Kirk to write a primer on American political, economic and civil principles titled "The American Cause." Kirk defined the American cause as "the defense of the principles of a true civilization. This defense is conducted by renewing people's consciousness of true moral and political and economic principle ..." He continued, "The American cause is not to stamp out of existence all rivals, but simply to keep alive the principles and institutions which have made the American nation great."

America's modern enemies might have rejoiced in data released last fall by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute demonstrating that 71 percent of Americans in its survey failed a basic civic literacy test with an average score of 49 percent. Incredibly, the average elected official in the sample scored just 44 percent.

Last Saturday, I heard a stirring commencement address by Judge Alice Batchelder of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals advocating the form of education that Kirk supported—education that will turn back the wave of national civic ignorance and strengthen our country. Following that address, an attorney and I discussed the deplorable treatment of the U.S. Constitution by the executive and congressional branches of the federal government that led to the approval of a 2009 budget deficit of $1.84 trillion. "Grotesque," lamented the attorney. We talked about how many of the world's countries have had multiple constitutions while America has had just one. We concluded that America operates from a new unwritten or "parallel constitution" that allows the government to spend whatever amount it desires without restraint by constitutional, moral or economic principle. This new constitution, birthed by civic illiteracy, is fostering the decay of a great nation—$60 trillion in deficits and unfunded liabilities, a failing educational system, breathtaking federal government interference in business, an out of control Federal Reserve that is putting the American dollar and the world's economic system at great risk, and social programs that promote family breakdown and dependence on government. And we have governments in Washington, D.C. and in many of our state capitals that want even more.

Kirk's book was written as an intellectual bulwark against the foreign threat of Soviet communism. He was concerned that we could not defend ourselves from foreign enemies unless we understood what we were defending. "Our danger at home is that a great part of the American people may forget that enduring principles exist," he said, foreshadowing today's striking civic illiteracy. "Our danger abroad is that the false principles of revolutionary fanaticism may gain such an influence as to wound us terribly."

I wonder where Kirk would think the greatest immediate threat to America lies today. Is it Al Qaeda or is it a domestic menace in the form of elected officials and bureaucrats whose actions demonstrate they know or care very little about the American cause? I think it is the latter. A country that has lost touch with its core principles is threatened more by Constitutional decay than by foreign radicals flying airplanes into skyscrapers. And, unfortunately, the domestic threat of civic illiteracy makes foreign threats more potent.

There is hope, of course. But it will require work. The task that Kirk assigns us is "to keep alive the principles and institutions which have made the American nation great." Principles like religious, political and economic liberty. And institutions like limited constitutional government and strong churches and families. The educational institutions that give me the most hope today are the private Christian schools, classical Christian schools, the home schooling movement, and private colleges that have a hefty Western civilization curriculum viewed through the lens of Scripture. There is hope in America because a vigorous remnant of institutions is working to preserve our core principles. We should enlist in their work.

As we prepare to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country this Memorial Day weekend, let us fulfill our duty to the American cause. Kirk says, "We do not need to invent some new theory of human nature and politics; but we do need, urgently, to recall to our minds the sound convictions that have sustained our civilization and our nation. Our enemies, no matter what resources they may have, cannot defeat us if we are strong in our own principles."

http://www.visandvals.org/The_Americ...morial_Day.php

[Richard]

Memorial Day Diary
Ben Stein, American Spectator, 30 May 2006

My brain is just exploding this morning with emotions about Memorial Day, and I have to get some of them down or I will lose what's left of my mind.

Saturday night I was in Arlington, Virginia, at the annual meeting of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. This is a fine group founded by Bonnie Carroll to get widows, widowers, mothers, fathers, and children of men and women who have died in the war on terrorism together. Last year I spoke and there were about 500 people in the audience. Saturday there were 700.

Bonnie Carroll, a stone genius, spoke gloriously. Magnificently. An angel of oratory. A staggeringly beautiful woman named Joanne Wrobleski, who had just been married to her husband for two years, spoke with power and rage and healing as a projector showed photos of her wedding to her astonishingly handsome husband. It was enough to melt a marble pillar.

A woman next to me named Mrs. Beard told about losing her son, Bradley. I asked her if she worked at a job. She said she used to be a bank teller, "but that after I lost my son, counting people's money didn't seem that important anymore." Her husband, a homebuilder, looked distraught. Their beautiful daughter played the piano and sang songs she had composed of peace and loss.

At every table, we passed around boxes of Kleenex continuously.

I spoke briefly and talked about how the loved ones missing from this dinner were the only people doing meaningful work in the world today as far as I could tell. The media try to tell us their work has no meaning, and when the media do this, it's almost like grave robbing.

Anyway, I spoke and then I hugged widows and bereft mothers for about an hour and a half. A man named Nolan Rappaport who has been a close friend since 1956 accompanied me and took photos. He was very patient and when I thanked him for his patience, he said, poetically, "I don't feel as if the time was lost."

When I got back to Los Angeles, I started to read a book I can't finish, called A Writer at War by Vassily Grossman, a correspondent with the Red Army newspaper during World War II.

The part I can't get past is the atrocities of the Germans towards the Jews when they took the Ukraine in the early part of World War II. One incident just haunts me every day.

The Germans came upon a kosher butcher. They asked him if he were really a good butcher. He said he hoped he was. They brought his two small sons to him and said, "Show us. On your sons."

I keep putting the book down at this point and wondering, "Why did God bother making creatures as wicked as man?"

Then I picked up a book of interviews with Bob Dylan. They were interesting. He's a clever con man and huckster and poet of the obscure and sometimes the meaningless. It's called The Essential Bob Dylan Interviews, edited by a man named Jonathan Cott. I recommend it. I also have with me a book called Heart of a Hawk about coping with losing a son in Iraq. It's by a woman I met at the event on Saturday, a lovely soul named Deb Tainsh. I have already read it and it's major stuff about loss and faith and pain.

And I thought, well, here's Bob Dylan, making jokes and making fun of his interviewers and he's a Jew. And here I am sitting at my computer with my dogs snoring nearby and my palm trees and my bottled water. And I'm a Jew. And why do we -- Jews and Gentiles here in America -- get to do what we do instead of being killed by the Nazis or the Islamic terrorists?

Because of Bonnie Carroll's husband and Bonnie Carroll. Because of Joanne Wrobleski and her hero husband. Because of all of the men and women at Arlington National Cemetery and on ocean floors and blown to bits in forests and muddy trenches. Because God made Eichmann, but he also made Bradley Beard and Dale Denman, Jr.

More are dying as we speak every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How do we ever make it up to them? How can we ever pay them back? Above all, by taking the loved ones they left behind into our arms, into our hearts, and loving them forever. And by making sure that when they die, their deaths are known to have meaning.

We would be nothing without them. Nothing. And somehow I feel as if my brain were still on fire.

http://spectator.org/archives/2006/0...rial-day-diary

[Richard]

In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
[An address delivered for Memorial Day, May 30, 1884, at Keene, NH, before John Sedgwick Post No. 4, Grand Army of the Republic.]

Not long ago I heard a young man ask why people still kept up Memorial Day, and it set me thinking of the answer. Not the answer that you and I should give to each other-not the expression of those feelings that, so long as you live, will make this day sacred to memories of love and grief and heroic youth--but an answer which should command the assent of those who do not share our memories, and in which we of the North and our brethren of the South could join in perfect accord.

So far as this last is concerned, to be sure, there is no trouble. The soldiers who were doing their best to kill one another felt less of personal hostility, I am very certain, than some who were not imperilled by their mutual endeavors. I have heard more than one of those who had been gallant and distinguished officers on the Confederate side say that they had had no such feeling. I know that I and those whom I knew best had not. We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win; we believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluable; we, or many of us at least, also believed that the conflict was inevitable, and that slavery had lasted long enough. But we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred conviction that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them as every men with a heart must respect those who give all for their belief. The experience of battle soon taught its lesson even to those who came into the field more bitterly disposed. You could not stand up day after day in those indecisive contests where overwhelming victory was impossible because neither side would run as they ought when beaten, without getting at least something of the same brotherhood for the enemy that the north pole of a magnet has for the south--each working in an opposite sense to the other, but each unable to get along without the other. As it was then , it is now. The soldiers of the war need no explanations; they can join in commemorating a soldier's death with feelings not different in kind, whether he fell toward them or by their side.

But Memorial Day may and ought to have a meaning also for those who do not share our memories. When men have instinctively agreed to celebrate an anniversary, it will be found that there is some thought of feeling behind it which is too large to be dependent upon associations alone. The Fourth of July, for instance, has still its serious aspect, although we no longer should think of rejoicing like children that we have escaped from an outgrown control, although we have achieved not only our national but our moral independence and know it far too profoundly to make a talk about it, and although an Englishman can join in the celebration without a scruple. For, stripped of the temporary associations which gives rise to it, it is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for the country in return.

So to the indifferent inquirer who asks why Memorial Day is still kept up we may answer, it celebrates and solemnly reaffirms from year to year a national act of enthusiasm and faith. It embodies in the most impressive form our belief that to act with enthusiam and faith is the condition of acting greatly. To fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might. So must you do to carry anything else to an end worth reaching. More than that, you must be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhpas a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out. All that is required of you is that you should go somewhither as hard as ever you can. The rest belongs to fate. One may fall-at the beginning of the charge or at the top of the earthworks; but in no other way can he reach the rewards of victory.

When it was felt so deeply as it was on both sides that a man ought to take part in the war unless some conscientious scruple or strong practical reason made it impossible, was that feeling simply the requirement of a local majority that their neighbors should agree with them? I think not: I think the feeling was right-in the South as in the North. I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.

If this be so, the use of this day is obvious. It is true that I cannot argue a man into a desire. If he says to me, Why should I seek to know the secrets of philosophy? Why seek to decipher the hidden laws of creation that are graven upon the tablets of the rocks, or to unravel the history of civilization that is woven in the tissue of our jurisprudence, or to do any great work, either of speculation or of practical affairs? I cannot answer him; or at least my answer is as little worth making for any effect it will have upon his wishes if he asked why I should eat this, or drink that. You must begin by wanting to. But although desire cannot be imparted by argument, it can be by contagion. Feeling begets feeling, and great feeling begets great feeling. We can hardly share the emotions that make this day to us the most sacred day of the year, and embody them in ceremonial pomp, without in some degree imparting them to those who come after us. I believe from the bottom of my heart that our memorial halls and statues and tablets, the tattered flags of our regiments gathered in the Statehouses, are worth more to our young men by way of chastening and inspiration than the monuments of another hundred years of peaceful life could be.

But even if I am wrong, even if those who come after us are to forget all that we hold dear, and the future is to teach and kindle its children in ways as yet unrevealed, it is enough for us that this day is dear and sacred.

Accidents may call up the events of the war. You see a battery of guns go by at a trot, and for a moment you are back at White Oak Swamp, or Antietam, or on the Jerusalem Road. You hear a few shots fired in the distance, and for an instant your heart stops as you say to yourself, The skirmishers are at it, and listen for the long roll of fire from the main line. You meet an old comrade after many years of absence; he recalls the moment that you were nearly surrounded by the enemy, and again there comes up to you that swift and cunning thinking on which once hung life and freedom--Shall I stand the best chance if I try the pistol or the sabre on that man who means to stop me? Will he get his carbine free before I reach him, or can I kill him first?These and the thousand other events we have known are called up, I say, by accident, and, apart from accident, they lie forgotten.

But as surely as this day comes round we are in the presence of the dead. For one hour, twice a year at least--at the regimental dinner, where the ghosts sit at table more numerous than the living, and on this day when we decorate their graves--the dead come back and live with us.

I see them now, more than I can number, as once I saw them on this earth. They are the same bright figures, or their counterparts, that come also before your eyes; and when I speak of those who were my brothers, the same words describe yours.

I see a fair-haired lad, a lieutenant, and a captain on whom life had begun somewhat to tell, but still young, sitting by the long mess-table in camp before the regiment left the State, and wondering how many of those who gathered in our tent could hope to see the end of what was then beginning. For neither of them was that destiny reserved. I remember, as I awoke from my first long stupor in the hospital after the battle of Ball's Bluff, I heard the doctor say, "He was a beautiful boy", [Web note: Lt. William L. Putnam, 20th Mass.] and I knew that one of those two speakers was no more. The other, after passing through all the previous battles, went into Fredericksburg with strange premonition of the end, and there met his fate.[Web Note: Cpt. Charles F. Cabot, 20th Mass.]

I see another youthful lieutenant as I saw him in the Seven Days, when I looked down the line at Glendale. The officers were at the head of their companies. The advance was beginning. We caught each other's eye and saluted. When next I looked, he was gone. [Web note: Lt. James. J. Lowell, 20th Mass.]

I see the brother of the last-the flame of genius and daring on his face--as he rode before us into the wood of Antietam, out of which came only dead and deadly wounded men. So, a little later, he rode to his death at the head of his cavalry in the Valley.

In the portraits of some of those who fell in the civil wars of England, Vandyke has fixed on canvas the type who stand before my memory. Young and gracious faces, somewhat remote and proud, but with a melancholy and sweet kindness. There is upon their faces the shadow of approaching fate, and the glory of generous acceptance of it. I may say of them , as I once heard it said of two Frenchmen, relics of the ancien regime, "They were very gentle. They cared nothing for their lives." High breeding, romantic chivalry--we who have seen these men can never believe that the power of money or the enervation of pleasure has put an end to them. We know that life may still be lifted into poetry and lit with spiritual charm.


(cont'd)

[Richard]

In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire
(cont'd)

But the men, not less, perhaps even more, characteristic of New England, were the Puritans of our day. For the Puritan still lives in New England, thank God! and will live there so long as New England lives and keeps her old renown. New England is not dead yet. She still is mother of a race of conquerors--stern men, little given to the expression of their feelings, sometimes careless of their graces, but fertile, tenacious, and knowing only duty. Each of you, as I do, thinks of a hundred such that he has known. I see one--grandson of a hard rider of the Revolution and bearer of his historic name--who was with us at Fair Oaks, and afterwards for five days and nights in front of the enemy the only sleep that he would take was what he could snatch sitting erect in his uniform and resting his back against a hut. He fell at Gettysburg.

His brother , a surgeon, [Web note: Edward H.R. Revere] who rode, as our surgeons so often did, wherever the troops would go, I saw kneeling in ministration to a wounded man just in rear of our line at Antietam, his horse's bridle round his arm--the next moment his ministrations were ended. His senior associate survived all the wounds and perils of the war, but , not yet through with duty as he understood it, fell in helping the helpless poor who were dying of cholera in a Western city.

I see another quiet figure, of virtuous life and quiet ways, not much heard of until our left was turned at Petersburg. He was in command of the regiment as he saw our comrades driven in. He threw back our left wing, and the advancing tide of defeat was shattered against his iron wall. He saved an army corps from disaster, and then a round shot ended all for him.

There is one who on this day is always present on my mind. He entered the army at nineteen, a second lieutenant. In the Wilderness, already at the head of his regiment, he fell, using the moment that was left him of life to give all of his little fortune to his soldiers.I saw him in camp, on the march, in action. I crossed debatable land with him when we were rejoining the Army together. I observed him in every kind of duty, and never in all the time I knew him did I see him fail to choose that alternative of conduct which was most disagreeable to himself. He was indeed a Puritan in all his virtues, without the Puritan austerity; for, when duty was at an end, he who had been the master and leader became the chosen companion in every pleasure that a man might honestly enjoy. His few surviving companions will never forget the awful spectacle of his advance alone with his company in the streets of Fredericksburg. In less than sixty seconds he would become the focus of a hidden and annihilating fire from a semicircle of houses. His first platoon had vanished under it in an instant, ten men falling dead by his side. He had quietly turned back to where the other half of his company was waiting, had given the order, "Second Platoon, forward!" and was again moving on, in obedience to superior command, to certain and useless death, when the order he was obeying was countermanded. The end was distant only a few seconds; but if you had seen him with his indifferent carriage, and sword swinging from his finger like a cane, you would never have suspected that he was doing more than conducting a company drill on the camp parade ground. He was little more than a boy, but the grizzled corps commanders knew and admired him; and for us, who not only admired, but loved, his death seemed to end a portion of our life also.

There is one grave and commanding presence that you all would recognize, for his life has become a part of our common history. Who does not remember the leader of the assault of the mine at Petersburg? The solitary horseman in front of Port Hudson, whom a foeman worthy of him bade his soldiers spare, from love and admiration of such gallant bearing? Who does not still hear the echo of those eloquent lips after the war, teaching reconciliation and peace? I may not do more than allude to his death, fit ending of his life. All that the world has a right to know has been told by a beloved friend in a book wherein friendship has found no need to exaggerate facts that speak for themselves. I knew him ,and I may even say I knew him well; yet, until that book appeared, I had not known the governing motive of his soul. I had admired him as a hero. When I read, I learned to revere him as a saint. His strength was not in honor alone, but in religion; and those who do not share his creed must see that it was on the wings of religious faith that he mounted above even valiant deeds into an empyrean of ideal life.

I have spoken of some of the men who were near to me among others very near and dear, not because their lives have become historic, but because their lives are the type of what every soldier has known and seen in his own company. In the great democracy of self-devotion private and general stand side by side. Unmarshalled save by their own deeds, the army of the dead sweep before us, "wearing their wounds like stars." It is not because the men I have mentioned were my friends that I have spoken of them, but, I repeat, because they are types. I speak of those whom I have seen. But you all have known such; you, too, remember!

It is not of the dead alone that we think on this day. There are those still living whose sex forbade them to offer their lives, but who gave instead their happiness. Which of us has not been lifted above himself by the sight of one of those lovely, lonely women, around whom the wand of sorrow has traced its excluding circle--set apart, even when surrounded by loving friends who would fain bring back joy to their lives? I think of one whom the poor of a great city know as their benefactress and friend. I think of one who has lived not less greatly in the midst of her children, to whom she has taught such lessons as may not be heard elsewhere from mortal lips. The story of these and her sisters we must pass in reverent silence. All that may be said has been said by one of their own sex---

But when the days of golden dreams had perished,
And even despair was powerless to destroy,
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy.
Then did I check the tears of useless passion,
weaned my young soul from yearning after thine
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

Comrades, some of the associations of this day are not only triumphant, but joyful. Not all of those with whom we once stood shoulder to shoulder--not all of those whom we once loved and revered--are gone. On this day we still meet our companions in the freezing winter bivouacs and in those dreadful summer marches where every faculty of the soul seemed to depart one after another, leaving only a dumb animal power to set the teeth and to persist-- a blind belief that somewhere and at last there was bread and water. On this day, at least, we still meet and rejoice in the closest tie which is possible between men-- a tie which suffering has made indissoluble for better, for worse.

When we meet thus, when we do honor to the dead in terms that must sometimes embrace the living, we do not deceive ourselves. We attribute no special merit to a man for having served when all were serving. We know that, if the armies of our war did anything worth remembering, the credit belongs not mainly to the individuals who did it, but to average human nature. We also know very well that we cannot live in associations with the past alone, and we admit that, if we would be worthy of the past, we must find new fields for action or thought, and make for ourselves new careers.

But, nevertheless, the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. While we are permitted to scorn nothing but indifference, and do not pretend to undervalue the worldly rewards of ambition, we have seen with our own eyes, beyond and above the gold fields, the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us. But, above all, we have learned that whether a man accepts from Fortune her spade, and will look downward and dig, or from Aspiration her axe and cord, and will scale the ice, the one and only success which it is his to command is to bring to his work a mighty heart.

Such hearts--ah me, how many!--were stilled twenty years ago; and to us who remain behind is left this day of memories. Every year--in the full tide of spring, at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life--there comes a pause, and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death. Year after year lovers wandering under the apple trees and through the clover and deep grass are surprised with sudden tears as they see black veiled figures stealing through the morning to a soldier's grave. Year after year the comrades of the dead follow, with public honor, procession and commemorative flags and funeral march--honor and grief from us who stand almost alone, and have seen the best and noblest of our generation pass away.

But grief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death--of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen , the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will.

http://people.virginia.edu/~mmd5f/memorial.htm

[Richard]

Grief and Honor at Arlington Cemetery
CPT (CH) James Key, U.S. Army.

Over the past few months, I've been stationed at Arlington National Cemetery, one of our nation's most sacred shrines and a testament to the sacrifices made by fellow Americans to uphold our country's democratic ideals and personal freedoms. More than 4 million people visit the cemetery each year, attending graveside services as well as other special ceremonies.

Each day, as I walk among the headstones lining these rolling hills, I'm mindful that more than 300,000 veterans and their dependents are buried here. From Pierre L'Enfant, who served as George Washington's aide during the American Revolution, to casualties from the war on terrorism, the veterans buried at Arlington represent every war in which the U.S. has fought.

Initially, I thought this assignment would be an emotional drain on my soul. Instead, this experience has already left an indelible mark on my life. I've conducted more than 100 services here, ministering to a diverse cross section of America.

While prominent military and civilian figures are buried here, the majority of the services I've conducted have been for ordinary people. Their faces are unknown to most Americans, and their stories have not been documented in history books or on the evening news. Nevertheless, their sacrifice must not go unnoticed. They served their country with honor and dignity. Those of us who wear a military uniform stand tall and proud because of those who came before us.

This Memorial Day, many families of these servicemembers will visit Arlington and observe this day as it was meant to be observed — with solemnity and with honor. I won't be able to greet every visitor, but if I could, I'd tell them what I've seen during my time here. In the early morning, I've seen the grounds crew work diligently to keep the lawn well-manicured and each tombstone clean. At high noon, I've seen security guards keep visitors and staff safe by directing and controlling the flow of traffic. In the late afternoon, I've seen the Honor Guard flawlessly render military honors with grace and precision. And in the late evening, I've seen "the Old Guard" soldiers watch over the Tomb of the Unknowns — a 24/7 ritual.

Lastly, I've seen a grieving family smile when I've reminded them at the end of a service that old soldiers never die. They just fade away to a better place where every day is Sunday, and the Sabbath hath no end. I'm not sure what my eyes will see tomorrow, but I'm blessed to have the opportunity to give some solace to the families whose loved ones we honor this day.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/...tery.html#more

In an hour I shall leave for DC...lots of photos...will put them up on a photobucket account for board members to pillage at will.. anything special pm me and I will take that Sunday..

Now, with regards to Memorial Day... a story some have told me to tell since it sorta kinda involves a QP MIA.

Back in 1970 when MIA bracelets were all the rage, I dipped my hand in a box and pulled out a bracelet. I wore that bracelet until it was stolen in 2000. When I moved up here, I was down in DC found the kiosk by The Wall and stuck my hand in a box and, holy cow!, pulled out the same name.. gave that bracelet to someone who was leaving on a cruise. I understand that bracelet and its wearer are in Phuket at the moment. Got another Bracelet, the name Matt Maupin.. mailed that one to his parents... went back for another and damn, the first name again.. note, no looking just reaching for a plastic bag and pulling it out of the box... gave that one away.. happened yet again.. detect a trend here.. gave that one away.. sailing Friends keep asking me to get bracelets for them. Soo.... the last time I was down in DC the kiosk was out and had been and was for the foreseeable future. But the guy gave me the phone number of the man who makes them for the Vets.. I lost it, then Thursday it just appeared on my desk.. okay... so I called that phone number and asked if a bracelet could be make and how long it would take.. He said he was busy and well.. it might be awhile. I said okay..but I wanted him to know why I wanted a specific bracelet. I told him the story above.. there was a pregnant pause on the other line.. I heard him ask, "Hun could we make just one bracelet" You going to be in DC this weekend? "yes sir" "the bracelet will be there for you.." "what is the price of the bracelet?" I did NOT bite.. "ten bucks" he chuckled..

The price of the bracelet is not just written on The Wall, I must take exception to that.. the price was written by those in our original 13 states who willingly signed a document declaring freedom from tyranny and oppression.. it was written by the blood of our soldiers who fought in that war, it was paid by the soldiers who defended Washington in 1812, in Mexico, Americans at the Alamo, in Havana Harbor (remember the Maine!), in Grenada, Columbia, panama, el Salvador, Tripoli and Mogadishu, It was those who died on the Arizona and too many coral atolls in the pacific to name... the Philippines, the Bataan death march.. the sands of Omaha and Normandy, in Sicily and north Africa.. over the skies of Germany (my uncle a navigator in a B17) IN the jungles of Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam...the sands of Kuwait and Iraq and currently the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan.. FREEDOM IS NOT FREE...

To all who died keeping this country free and safe.. THANK YOU..

mmmm... the name on the bracelet? SFC Jerry Shriver, 5th SF.

For those who don't know this man.. this thread pretty much says it all.
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...ad.php?t=72037

http://www.taskforceomegainc.org/s139.html

[swpa19]

This may have been posted befoe. I've done a search with no results on this particular link.

http://home.comcast.net/~singingman7/Soldier.htm

[alright4u]

Thanks for the posts. I really never knew when the day was created until now.

I had no idea it was created after the Civil War. Thanks for the INFO.

[Gypsy]

Thank you Richard, this thread will make for some quiet and thoughtful reading time during this weekend.

May those who fought for this country from the beginning Rest in Peace and know they are not forgotten. At least not by some of us.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by swpa19

This may have been posted befoe. I've done a search with no results on this particular link.

swpa19,

Beautiful post...... The "garden of stones" as a background said it all.....

Teddy

[The Reaper]

This seems like a good place for this article.

TR

Sunday Forum: They died for you

Author RICK ATKINSON tells us 10 things Americans should know about World War II

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The first thing to know about World War II is that it was a big war, a war that lasted 2,174 days and claimed an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every three seconds. One, two, three, snap. One, two, three, snap.

In an effort to get our arms around this greatest calamity in human history, let's examine 10 things every American ought to know about the role of the U.S. Army in WWII.

1) The U.S. Army was a weakling when the European war began in earnest on Sept. 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland. The U.S. Army ranked 17th among armies in size and combat power, just behind Romania. It numbered 190,000 soldiers. It would grow to nearly 8.5 million by 1945.

When mobilization began in 1940, the Army had only 14,000 professional officers. The senior ranks were dominated by political hacks of certifiable military incompetence. Not a single officer on duty in 1941 had commanded a unit as large as a division in World War I. The Army's cavalry chief assured Congress that four well-spaced horsemen could charge and destroy an enemy machine-gun nest without sustaining a scratch.

2) The war affected all Americans. A total of 16 million served in uniform; virtually every family had someone in harm's way; virtually every American had an emotional investment in our Army. That WWII army of 8.5 million existed in a country of about 130 million; today we have an army of roughly 500,000 in a country of 307 million.

Still, the U.S. Army mobilized only 90 divisions by the end of the war. That compares to about 300 for Germany; 400 for the Soviet Union, and 100 for Japan.

One reason was the gradual recognition that the Soviet Union was fighting most of the German army. Another was the recognition that the United States could provide industrial muscle unlike any nation on earth, to build tanks, airplanes, and trucks, to make things like penicillin and synthetic rubber, not only for us but for our Allies. That meant keeping a fair amount of manpower in factories and other industrial jobs, while getting women into the workforce as never before.

3) The U.S. Army did not win World War II by itself. We can be proud of our role, but we must not be delusional, chauvinistic or so besotted with American exceptionalism that we falsify history.

The war began 27 months before America joined the fray. It was fought on six continents, a global conflagration unlike any seen before or since. The British had done a great deal in those 27 months to keep alive the hopes of the western democracies. Russia lost an estimated 26 million people in the war, and its military did most of the bleeding for the Allied cause. By the end of the war, there were about 60 nations on the Allied side. In Italy alone, Brazilians, Poles, Nepalese, New Zealanders, French, Italians and a number of other nationalities fought beside us.

Read more: "Sunday Forum: They died for you" - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09144...xzz0GQlJSjKN&A

[swpa19]

TR:

Simply and outstanding post. Its a shame you wont find that type of history in the American History classes in todays schools.