Thanks to Anne Neal for providing the origination re Memorial Day:
"After the Civil War, Americans began observing the holiday that came to be known as Memorial Day in order to commemorate the war dead from both sides. As time went on, we remembered those who died defending our country in all its wars."
As I personally reflect each year about Memorial Day I concentrate on the living & think of the graduation ceremony of those in The Long Gray Line. Carol & I have attended several of these graduation ceremonies @ West Point & I always get as close as I can to the new graduates to look into their faces to see their courage & wonder where they are going. I marvel @ their leadership & accomplishment.
But you don't have to look farther than the Preamble of our Constitution to find who the Founders regarded as the volunteer defenders of American Liberty - "We the People of the United States...provide for the common defense..." This opening sentence is a strong connection to the right of individuals to "to keep & bear arms" under the Second Amendment.
People go into the military for many reasons but just about all of the ones I personally know have or had a calling to serve that required no "thank you" from the nation they defended.
This of course is best illustrated by the Father Of Our Country, George Washington. I love the passages from Washington's God by Michael Novak & Jana Novak quoted here:
"(Washington) lost a great deal of money during the hostilities by paying many things out of his own pocket when Congress could not...& by refusing a salary...(Washington had) a special relationship with his beloved army – the first army of free men of democratic habits in the world...many loved him & lived long to boast that they had fought under him &, on occasion, seen him with their own eyes."
Washington was one of those rare individuals who had no hidden agenda. He did what he did for love of country. If he had been the kind of man that fed on adulation, it would have been very easy for him to become a King since the people would have been happy to have him as ruler.
ReplyDeleteAs President he fulfilled his duties but knew when it was time for him to go home to his farm and family and allow others to take over the job of leading the new nation forward.
Today we have politicians who think they are indispensable so they make politics a lifetime career. It's time for term limits for elected and even appointed people in all areas of government. The country as well as states and cities and municipalities would benefit from having these limits to prevent individuals and political parties from becoming too powerful.