As I write this, I’m enjoying the quite of my lovely home while my family sleeps.
I am complaining to myself about the aches and pains of resulting from hard yard work, swearing that we’re hiring
it all out next time.
Then I start to thinking about the
reason why I’m enjoying the long, Memorial Day weekend. I began thinking about the countless men
and women who selfishly served our country. From the wars and “conflicts” (they still look,
smell and taste like war to me. I’m just sayin’.) of our nation, countless soldiers left to
fight as kids and came back as adults.
Most all of them
came home with a greater appreciation for our country. Many came home in one piece. Many left parts of
their bodies on foreign battlefields. Thousands simply vanished – “missing in action” or “unaccounted
for”. Many paid the ultimate price with their lives.
As I wrote last Memorial Day weekend in my article, 1776, I’m always moved by stories of the valiant men and women of many different races and areas of life who served out
country unselfishly.
In The Grave, I commemorate the loss of my second cousin’s husband, Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Patrick McCloskey, to a road
side bomb in Afghanistan. While most people have forgotten about him, going on with their daily lives,
his family and friends certainly haven’t.
I also wrote in my
piece, Mamma Don’t Cry, that I’m often touched by the personal memories I have of a personal friend, Randy Baugus, who lost both legs in a
land mine blast that should have killed him. While soldiers were being labeled “baby killers”, his legs were blown
off on a mission to protect Vietnamese babies and their families.
Who I haven’t mentioned until now is a lady who I used to work with back in the early eighties whose husband was one
of Vietnam MIA’s. I saw first hand the impact the “just not knowing” had on this woman.
I didn’t know her before her husband went missing but I was told by those that did that she was a completely different
woman since he was gone. She acted in ways that would’ve never entered her mind before.
She also turned to the bottle to bury the pain. Her name will never be added to a wall but
she’s a casualty of war just the same.
These sacrifices,
and hundreds of thousands more just like these people, have given in extraordinary ways so that we, and men and women from
countries around the world, can be free. Not only to be free but to be a beacon of liberty to those in
other countries to come to America legally and enjoy the benefits of the sacrifice of our soldiers.
Memorial Day is one of those days that should be commemorated in more pronounced ways than
society typically does. We’re more interested in what we get to do for those glorious three day weekends.
I’m certainly guilty of this from time to time. However, this year, I’m buying a American
flag to fly this Memorial Day.
Thank you, soldier
- both past and present, alive or dead, whole or permanently wounded – for your incredible sacrifices. May
we NEVER take them for granted or stupidly squander away the fruits of the sacrifices by you and your families.
