Remembrance

Memorial Day 2004 what does it mean for you? For me it is a day that fills me with pride, and a deep concern. Where is our Republic going? Is anybody on the bridge, if so can they read the chart (i.e. Constitution)? Today we stop and pay homage to our fallen comrades, those who sacrificed to wear the cloth of the nation. Today the loved ones who once sat in the now vacant chair are no longer the memory of a long passed father or grandfather they are our sons, daughters, grandchildren, fathers mothers, sisters and brothers. Many of them were still here with us just a few short months ago. Will you remember them still when a decade has passed? Is their sacrifice in vain? Only the will of our nation can pass judgment upon that. Recently, my Grandmother passed away; she was preceded in her homecoming by my Grandfather well over 20 years ago. My father has been busy putting her estate in order and he sent a few things on to me. Somehow it seems appropriate that during the week leading to this Memorial Day when our best are fighting to give freedom to an oppressed people and to defend a very ungrateful nation against remorseless fanatics that I held in my hand my grandfathers medals earned in the Second World War. I never really new him. To me my Grandfather was an intimidating bear that I saw only infrequently. As I looked through the box of mementos of his life I realized it was my loss. His generation is often called the “greatest generation” because of what they endured and accomplished. My Commanding General when I was deployed for Enduring Freedom often said we are the next greatest generation. I hope he was right, but now that I am home and can see the way we are portrayed to those we served and how absolutely feckless our people have become I have my doubts. I am a pessimist by nature and training but I still find my self un-prepared for the self destructive and delusional character of the American people which has been so evident to me since I returned.

I have another emotion associated with Memorial Day, this one stems from my Southern up bringing. The origins of Memorial Day are still debated but I was taught that the holiday stems from Southern Ladies decorating the graves of our soldiers who died defending their loved ones from invasion by a brutal aggressor. The history books you will find in today’s government schools will tell you that the Southern soldier died defending the institution of slavery. I would not argue that the greatest and perhaps only good to result from the War of Northern Aggression was the death of that institution. Patrick Cleburne’s words were profoundly prophetic when he said:

“Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy: that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers: learn from Northern school books their version of the war: will be impressed by all the influences of history to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision...”
-Gen Patrick Cleburne

Today, if you visit a national cemetery such as those at Shiloh, Yorktown, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg or many others, you will see gardens of stones marking the last resting place of those soldiers who invaded, conquered, occupied and subjugated the southern nation. Often times near them there are barely marked mass graves for Southrons who died defending their liberty, their wives, their sweet hearts and their homes. Today it is even forbidden to fly the flag they served under above the graves where they lie entombed and intertwined with their fallen messmates. I will always strive to remember the sacrifice of Southern forbears.

"Any society which suppresses the heritage of its conquered minorities, prevents their history, and denies them their symbols, has sewn the seed of its own destruction."
Sir William Wallace 1281 A.D.

TO THE TYRANT NEVER YIELD