Memorial Day 2019
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| Image © Janet Burroff |
Today is not about politics. It's about remembering that the freedoms we too easily take for granted came at the highest imaginable cost. We are all in the debt of the fallen - and while it is a debt which can never be repaid, it is essential that we try to prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice every day.
On this Memorial Day, please take time in your thoughts to express gratitude to those who have died in the service of our country.
Well said
ReplyDeleteThe ghosts of my war don't visit my dreams as much as they did 50 years ago. When they do stop by, they seem to say: "you're OK. remember us. carry on." I will never forget them or the sacrifices they made to the living and the dead.
ReplyDeleteSalute brothers and sisters ........You stand relieved ...... R I P
ReplyDeleteWe will never forget you. To those who (like myself) made it home alive: "Welcome back to 'The World' ". שמותינו יכתבו בספר החיים.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the image, Janet B.
ReplyDeleteI salute all those Americans, throughout the years, who gave their all for the sake of freedom.
I may have mentioned here before that in Israel, Memorial Day is the day immediately prior to our Independence Day. That helps ensure that we never lose sight of the price of gaining and maintaining our independence.TV
If only the Leftists appreciated our country and the sacrifices our military has made to keep it America as they fought for and left it for us in the future. Most often you don't realize what you have lost until it is gone and never to be again. An awesome and solemn flag. Thanks, Stilton
ReplyDeleteA 30+ year Navy vet.
I am constantly amazed at the unblinking sacrifice that others gave for the cause of Freedom. I lost my best friend, David Allen Higgs, in service in a foreign land. He saw me go into the AF and thought it would be cool to follow me. I could not attend his funeral, we were at DEFCON 3 and all leave was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I will never forget you, nor your service. It's not been the same, Best Friend. I look forward to giving you a grateful hug when we meet again.
Duty. Honor. God & Country.
May God Bless America ... Again.
ReplyDelete"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." - Ronald Reagan
ReplyDeleteBelieving that America is worth fighting, killing, and dying for is the essence of modern politics.
ReplyDelete(raises a glass for David Allen Higgs and all the other heroes who gave their all)
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or are the wrong people dying for our country? I can think of a lot of people out there who would leave the world a little bit cleaner and nicer with their passing...
Without the military and their brave members, our great country would never be free!!!
ReplyDeleteHappened today, and in the past;
ReplyDeleteSacrifice made, for ours to last.
Wives to widows, families torn;
Gave their lives, for them we mourn.
Gone forever, souls are lost;
Freedom comes, with this cost.
Enjoy the life, they did preserve;
Fate they suffered, did not deserve.
On this day, lest we forget;
To them we owe, our life in debt.
To Them We Owe © Don Nielsen
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ReplyDeleteYea, it galls me to no end that these liberals take advantage of the sacrifices made by our military to wail against the very military that made it possible for them to be free to express their ludicrous really stupid opinions. Hypocrisy of the first order. It is unbelievable that we have a nation that can produce such men and women that are willing to sacrifice their freedom and lives for this nation. God Bless them all. And to those who have already sacrificed their lives for this country, RIP brothers and sister. Your replacements are here and being trained now.
ReplyDeleteBe respectful to this wonderful remembrance of these fallen heroes. For every fallen military person, a family was torn asunder never to be whole again. God Bless every family that suffered a loss.
I am old enough to remember that after WWII, storefronts would have small signs that reminded, "Lest we Forget." My parents owned a small store in a small northern California town, and each Memorial Day, they and other store owners paid tribute to those veterans who had become disabled or died in the war by removing everything they had displayed in the storefront window and replacing it with mementoes of war (helmets, empty gun belts, etc.) as a tribute to those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice, and as a reminder to those who hadn't.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I served for four years in the Air Force in the late 1950s when there were no active conflicts, I give thanks each day to those who gave their lives to ensure my freedom.
I haven't forgotten.
May we be worthy.
ReplyDeleteI found this wonderful article in today's Patriot Post. It's worth a read:
ReplyDeletehttps://patriotpost.us/pages/310?mailing_id=4297&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4297&utm_campaign=digest&utm_content=body
ReplyDelete[NOTE: The intended image did not paste here.. but it's a table of American war dead for all major engagements starting with the American Revolutionary War. I got it today from Woodsterman [sic] and add the comment below. And sorry Stilt, this is a bit political; that's now becoming more necessary everywhere and all the time. >>>
Approx 1.5 million US who gave it all. Not so many it may seem to a numerologist when USA now has a population of ~330 million and growing. But the 330 million are not all like these people were. USA started 250+ years ago (very young in the world as a whole) and were almost entirely a nation of immigrants. But we survived and grew as a new nation united under a new constitutio Now a large number are not even legally here and our borders are among the most open in the world. Few want to leave; many want to come; some with potential but many of those without merit. Many now without the intention of becoming Americans but to retain & grow their old culture here.
Look at the dates and campaigns in that chart. Consider the impact those who became these statistics along with their surviving brothers & sisters in arms had on the world! And we are not the largest population, not by far. And the others do not all live by the same rules. We WERE and probably still are some effective in history in support & defense of civil rights, liberty & freedom. And we'd much rather develop and defend that stance with friendship and fair commerce, not war.
But now (including from our domestic side) there are those who want to make us (US) like the others. If ranked in chronological order, it's nice to see declining data over time. But we are also now slowly losing a long & insidious campaign to new opponents; and this time it's also from invaders on our turf; inside our academics, commerce & government. We must remember teach & learn more history. Our population is younger, more into entertainment & connectivity, and no longer hears the old stories.
I also wish there were data for the percentage of outspoken liberals, politicians, academics, gender confused & illegal aliens in the table. I'm thinking those would be very low numbers.
And I'm personally very happy and lucky the holiday for my family is mostly Veterans Day honoring those who made it back; not Memorial Day, really for those who did not.
I never served in the military, but I witnessed the injured (both obvious and not so obvious injuries) and how they carried themselves with dignity and pride. I don't envy their wounds but I do envy their courage on the battlefield and mourn what they needlessly endured on their return home. Soldiers, I am so grateful for your sacrifices. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's about gratitude. The days are few when Mrs. Econ & I are reading the paper and one of us does not look at the other and say, "We are so blessed to have been born and live where we do." Today we celebrate many of the people who made the possible at the ultimate price.
ReplyDeleteLast week, I did something I usually don't do; I engaged some millennials who posted a meme based on some contrived and phony study about how America was among the top-10 worst places for women. You can imagine the vitriol that erupted when I challenged the notion of that. Iran wasn't on the list. Does anyone seriously think that women are better off in Iran than they are here?
It's sad that so few people have gratitude. They're living in the promised land and don't even realize it. Their complains are almost exclusively first-world problems. And better yet, they can whine about them without worry that the secret police won't arrive to address their discord.
I am so blessed that I was never faced with having my comparatively cushy life disrupted by being sent to some god-forsaken place to do mortal battle against people who wanted to end our way of life, much less my life. For that reason alone, I have gratitude for those who did.
Thank you Stilton, and great choice for image...Thanks Janet.
ReplyDelete@Readers- So many good and emotionally moving comments above. I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: I feel very lucky to share friendship with this little online community.
ReplyDeleteAnd let me take a moment to thank my friend Janet Burroff for letting me use the image in the post today. She created it for her own use, and when I first saw it a few days ago, it nearly knocked the wind out of me. It's a picture that says way more than a thousand words.
@Stilton,
ReplyDeletePlease thank Janet for us veterans. I've seen that small part of the flag too many times. Unfortunately.