ENCORE POST from FIVE YEARS AGO UPDATED
MEMORIAL DAY 2018
In loving memory and deepest gratitude
for all who fought, suffered injuries, and died
that we might live in freedom today.
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more, day by day,
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
~ Christina Rossetti (1836-1894)
We still called this occasion "Decoration Day" when I was in elementary school. It originated after the Civil War to honor those dead.
Veterans Day was called Armistice Day back then too.
Have we ever given official thanks to those who fought, suffered, bled, died and went broke during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812?
Veterans Day was called Armistice Day back then too.
Have we ever given official thanks to those who fought, suffered, bled, died and went broke during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812?
After the decisive victory won by The Allies in World War Two it seems downright criminal to me that even ONE American has had to die in the many staged Exercises in Futility we've been led to indulge in since for the benefit of Munitions Manufacturers and the International Bankers who play all sides against the middle to our great detriment.
We should all be armed to the teeth to repel foreign invaders and shoot to death anyone who dares intrude upon the sanctity of our homes.
Aggressors of any kind deserve nothing less than DEATH.
However, when we are duped into becoming aggressors, ourselves, in the name of some phony, trumped-up "cause" or manufactured international "crisis," our soldiers then become nothing more than pawns –– victims of the greed and corrupt ambition of the few who own and operate our leaders and dictate our policies for nefarious purposes of the their own behind the scenes.
Even so, a father, son, husband, brother, lover or friend killed in these Wars of Waste and Warped Ambition is no less deserving of our love, respect and reverence than those who died for genuine, noble causes.
Their sacrifice may have been in vain, but as Kipling said in The Charge of the Light Brigade:
"Theirs not to reason why;
Theirs but to do and die."
For that alone they deserve our love, respect and unending support. Courage and sacrifice are still what they are even when tragically –– or diabolically -- misdirected.
May God grant our people –– and ALL people –– access to Truth, and give them the wisdom to seek Truth, then act in accordance with Truth when at last it becomes known.
AMEN!
Beautiful, and SO well said... Thank you FT.
ReplyDeleteTo all who served, a hearty "Thanks!"
ReplyDeleteWonderful FT.
ReplyDeleteIn Flanders Fields
ReplyDeleteJohn McCrae, 1872 - 1918
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
From How Can We Honor the Soldiers of an Endless War? What does Memorial Day look like when the war never ends?:
ReplyDelete... We define our history by the definitive wars against European nations with definitive victories. The great cataclysmic world wars convinced us that our conflicts would get bigger and more explosive.
Instead we have returned to civilizational warfare. We no longer fight nations, but tribes. The wars are low intensity, but never go away. The weapons are primitive, but the goal of the attackers is to destroy our morale by inflicting psychological trauma, terrorizing us with barbaric atrocities, to defeat us.
Our military is still adapting its techniques and technology to this old/new way of war. But as a society we must also adapt the way we honor our troops and respect their sacrifices. Memorial Day was born out of the reconciliations between North and South after the Civil War. But we cannot look either to wars won or reconciliations achieved. We must honor the soldiers of a war that may never end....
More at the above link.
The heroes –– and the victims –– of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, Westard Expanson, the Civil War, World War One, the Depression, World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, et al. must be spinning in their graves like tops to see what a stinking mess WE have made of our ince0great heritage, despite the great sacrifice and tremendous achievements thea made for OUR sakes.
ReplyDelete______ MEMORIAL to a WAY of LIFE NOW SADLY DEFUNCT: ______
ReplyDeleteSonce I am partially-sighted, and therefore a bit disabled, a neighbor of my same age, but in better shape, very kindly offered to retrieve my mail and bring it to my frint entrance. The floweriing vine at the mailbox, apparently, grew too fast this spring, and blocked access to the box. She kindly offered to trim the vine for me. Here's what I wrote to her:
Very nice of you to offer, _____, but you shouldn’t have to trim my shrubbery. I thought the “groundskeepers” were doing that. Apparently not. so, If you really want to, please be my guest.
As you know, my activities are very limited. I only do what’s important to me, personally, these days –– and not enough of that, I’m afraid. It’s a shame that merely paying a large sum each month to the “landscapers" is NOT enough to ensure good service. [I have to TELL them to do everything outside of basic mowing, or it doesn’t get done.] "Playing dumb" makes life much easer for them, I’m sure.
Someday, I’ll tell you how beautifully things worked when I was a child and a young man. From what I can see the country has gone to hell in a handcart in the past sixty years.
The garbage collectors walked into our side yard EVERY DAY in all weathers to pull the cans out of the ground where they were neatly buried, emptied the garbage into their truck, then replaced the cans. EVERY DAY.
The mailman delivered the mail TO THE DOOR. –– EVERY DAY.
The laundry was SENT OUT in bags with a checklist, then returned "spandy clean" and neatly folded in BOXES twice a week.
The milkman came and DELIVERED milk, cream, butter and eggs, and took away the empty bottles to be sterilized at the plant and reused.
The grocery store DELIVERED whatever my mother ordered over the phone.
We were NOT “rich,” we were just middle middle-class, and we rented the ground floor of a two-family house when my life began.
The COST of LIVING then was less than ten percent what it is today.
You can HAVE “Progress.” I think it stinks on ice. };^)>
All that may sound like a "fairy tale," to y yiungsters out there, but I assure you it is perfectly true.
So while we are remembering our Fallen Heroes and Victims of Past Wars with gratitude, let us ALSO remember our Fallen Way of Life which suggests to me that the great sacrifices made in the past by our military, Alas! were probably made in VAIN.
felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
ReplyDeleteAnd Mourners to and fro
Kept treading –– treading –– till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through -
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum ––
Kept beating –– beating –– till I thought
My mind was going numb––
And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space –– began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here ––
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down ––
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing –– then ––
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
FT, are you remembering correctly that garbage was picked up every day? It was once picked up twice a week in different places I lived. But I now live in a city which to save the poor beleaguered taxpayer money they have decided to pick up garbage every 8th day.
ReplyDeleteI think it makes a big difference especially in hot weather since that 8 days can stretch out to much more than 8 days when a long weekend intervenes in the schedule and it becomes a wretched mess to even move a garbage can it stifling hot weather.
My memory for autobiographical details is all but infallible, Waylon.
DeleteI was raised in what-is-known-as a "good community." Our standard of living was very high. I still live very well by today's standards, but frankly I'd rather be "poor" in 1945 than "rich" in 2018.
I have had to watch our way of life die a long, slow, painful death over the past six decades. I do not believe this HAD to happen. I believe it was carefully PLANNED and FORCED on us –– but so gradually and stealthily that most still haven't recognized what has happened.
The old Frog in the Pot syndrome.
TRAGIC!
Amen FreeThinke!
ReplyDeleteYup, the progress of Progressive-ism has brought us to Globalism, just another name from Communism. Those bastards are hell bent on imposing their full dominance over every individual on the planet.
ReplyDelete