The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Monday, May 30, 2005
Remembering WHO...but also remembering WHAT
Great essay on the American Thinker site, from a 21 year old attorney in California, in which she describes events that brought home the real meaning of Memorial Day to her.
In this wonderful story about a young woman's discovery of the real meaning of sacrifice, the author quotes Reagan's 1985 speech at Arlington National cemetery. Moved by her piece, and by Reagan's words that she cited, I followed her link to that speech; and it was then that the words of the Gipper hit me right between the eyes as being hugely relevant to our situation today:
It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.
There's always someone who is remembering for us. No matter what time of year it is or what time of day, there are always people who come to this cemetery, leave a flag or a flower or a little rock on a headstone. And they stop and bow their heads and communicate what they wished to communicate. They say, ``Hello, Johnny,'' or ``Hello, Bob. We still think of you. You're still with us. We never got over you, and we pray for you still, and we'll see you again. We'll all meet again.''
In a way, they represent us, these relatives and friends, and they speak for us as they walk among the headstones and remember. It's not so hard to summon memory, but it's hard to recapture meaning.
And the living have a responsibility to remember the conditions that led to the wars in which our heroes died. Perhaps we can start by remembering this: that all of those who died for us and our country were, in one way or another, victims of a peace process that failed; victims of a decision to forget certain things; to forget, for instance, that the surest way to keep a peace going is to stay strong.
Weakness, after all, is a temptation -- it tempts the pugnacious to assert themselves -- but strength is a declaration that cannot be misunderstood. Strength is a condition that declares actions have consequences. Strength is a prudent warning to the belligerent that aggression need not go unanswered.
Peace fails when we forget what we stand for. It fails when we forget that our Republic is based on firm principles, principles that have real meaning, that with them, we are the last, best hope of man on Earth; without them, we're little more than the crust of a continent.
Peace also fails when we forget to bring to the bargaining table God's first intellectual gift to man: common sense. Common sense gives us a realistic knowledge of human beings and how they think, how they live in the world, what motivates them. Common sense tells us that man has magic in him, but also clay. Common sense can tell the difference between right and wrong. Common sense forgives error, but it always recognizes it to be error first.
We endanger the peace and confuse all issues when we obscure the truth; when we refuse to name an act for what it is; when we refuse to see the obvious and seek safety in Almighty. Peace is only maintained and won by those who have clear eyes and brave minds. Peace is imperiled when we forget to try for agreements and settlements and treaties; when we forget to hold out our hands and strive; when we forget that God gave us talents to use in securing the ends He desires. Peace fails when we forget that agreements, once made, cannot be broken without a price.
Are you listening New York Times? Are you hearing this Newsweek? Are you haters of this country who nevertheless enjoy its fruits and who profit from its freedoms every day coming anywhere near understanding what is being said here?
What these words mean is that these fallen heroes have sacrificed far too much for us to now permit our freedom be threatened by despots who do not keep their word, or worse, by those who live here whose inaction, twisted half truths and incessant negativity in the face of those who would gladly kill us all, sends a message of surrender and appeasement that can only be interpreted by our enemies as weakness, as an open invitation to embolden their efforts against us.
If you have ever walked through a Civil War battleground, if you have seen the miles of crosses at Normandy, if you have grown misty eyed at the rows and rows and rows of the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery, you know that far too many young and noble soldiers have paid the ultimate price--for any of us who do feel this sacrifice in our bones, who do understand the enormity of what has been paid for us in blood already, to ever even consider allowing these weak-kneed America-hating appeasers to threaten our freedom now.
We owe the fallen an unimaginable debt of gratitude. But we also owe them our own pledge to not allow those who would tear down everything that these men and women in the prime of their lives have died for to succeed in the destruction of all we hold dear. Today is not merely a day to remember those who died, but to hold high the ideals they died for -- and for each of us to renew our own commitment to those ideals--and finally to stand up to anyone or anything who would tear apart this magnificent experiment we call America.
We are at war with those people today, and every day. The enemy sits in the ivory towers of places like the New York Times and Reuters and Newsweek and every day looks for ways to weaken the ideals and values that this country was built upon. To demean the job our men and women are staring down death every day to do. And like those who have heeded the call and paid the ultimate price in the past, we too must now step up and must not allow their deaths to have been in vain. These men and women, killed in the prime of their youth, call to us--they call for us to carry on, to carry that torch, to light the way for those who will follow. God bless them and God bless all who continue in that noble crusade.
In this wonderful story about a young woman's discovery of the real meaning of sacrifice, the author quotes Reagan's 1985 speech at Arlington National cemetery. Moved by her piece, and by Reagan's words that she cited, I followed her link to that speech; and it was then that the words of the Gipper hit me right between the eyes as being hugely relevant to our situation today:
It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.
There's always someone who is remembering for us. No matter what time of year it is or what time of day, there are always people who come to this cemetery, leave a flag or a flower or a little rock on a headstone. And they stop and bow their heads and communicate what they wished to communicate. They say, ``Hello, Johnny,'' or ``Hello, Bob. We still think of you. You're still with us. We never got over you, and we pray for you still, and we'll see you again. We'll all meet again.''
In a way, they represent us, these relatives and friends, and they speak for us as they walk among the headstones and remember. It's not so hard to summon memory, but it's hard to recapture meaning.
And the living have a responsibility to remember the conditions that led to the wars in which our heroes died. Perhaps we can start by remembering this: that all of those who died for us and our country were, in one way or another, victims of a peace process that failed; victims of a decision to forget certain things; to forget, for instance, that the surest way to keep a peace going is to stay strong.
Weakness, after all, is a temptation -- it tempts the pugnacious to assert themselves -- but strength is a declaration that cannot be misunderstood. Strength is a condition that declares actions have consequences. Strength is a prudent warning to the belligerent that aggression need not go unanswered.
Peace fails when we forget what we stand for. It fails when we forget that our Republic is based on firm principles, principles that have real meaning, that with them, we are the last, best hope of man on Earth; without them, we're little more than the crust of a continent.
Peace also fails when we forget to bring to the bargaining table God's first intellectual gift to man: common sense. Common sense gives us a realistic knowledge of human beings and how they think, how they live in the world, what motivates them. Common sense tells us that man has magic in him, but also clay. Common sense can tell the difference between right and wrong. Common sense forgives error, but it always recognizes it to be error first.
We endanger the peace and confuse all issues when we obscure the truth; when we refuse to name an act for what it is; when we refuse to see the obvious and seek safety in Almighty. Peace is only maintained and won by those who have clear eyes and brave minds. Peace is imperiled when we forget to try for agreements and settlements and treaties; when we forget to hold out our hands and strive; when we forget that God gave us talents to use in securing the ends He desires. Peace fails when we forget that agreements, once made, cannot be broken without a price.
Are you listening New York Times? Are you hearing this Newsweek? Are you haters of this country who nevertheless enjoy its fruits and who profit from its freedoms every day coming anywhere near understanding what is being said here?
What these words mean is that these fallen heroes have sacrificed far too much for us to now permit our freedom be threatened by despots who do not keep their word, or worse, by those who live here whose inaction, twisted half truths and incessant negativity in the face of those who would gladly kill us all, sends a message of surrender and appeasement that can only be interpreted by our enemies as weakness, as an open invitation to embolden their efforts against us.
If you have ever walked through a Civil War battleground, if you have seen the miles of crosses at Normandy, if you have grown misty eyed at the rows and rows and rows of the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery, you know that far too many young and noble soldiers have paid the ultimate price--for any of us who do feel this sacrifice in our bones, who do understand the enormity of what has been paid for us in blood already, to ever even consider allowing these weak-kneed America-hating appeasers to threaten our freedom now.
We owe the fallen an unimaginable debt of gratitude. But we also owe them our own pledge to not allow those who would tear down everything that these men and women in the prime of their lives have died for to succeed in the destruction of all we hold dear. Today is not merely a day to remember those who died, but to hold high the ideals they died for -- and for each of us to renew our own commitment to those ideals--and finally to stand up to anyone or anything who would tear apart this magnificent experiment we call America.
We are at war with those people today, and every day. The enemy sits in the ivory towers of places like the New York Times and Reuters and Newsweek and every day looks for ways to weaken the ideals and values that this country was built upon. To demean the job our men and women are staring down death every day to do. And like those who have heeded the call and paid the ultimate price in the past, we too must now step up and must not allow their deaths to have been in vain. These men and women, killed in the prime of their youth, call to us--they call for us to carry on, to carry that torch, to light the way for those who will follow. God bless them and God bless all who continue in that noble crusade.
