Memorial Day in the US.

Thanks to all our former and current service men and women. Ran across this link in another forum, have to post it. http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/FREEDOMISNTFREE.HTML

 

I agree with your sentiments, Fred. Thanks to all our brave past, present and future servicemen for your sacrifice. :major

 

And as an informal gesture, I would like to add our Belgian, English, Russian, German, French, Mexican, Spanish... And well, I am only typing so much.

They serve their country, right or wrong. God Bless the troops. :major

But, Monday is a day I quietly remember all the ones that did not make it home, and think good thoughts for all those who are deployed.

I remember my Uncle's military funeral. It was something. A feeling of peace and pride, that overcomes part of the grief, is the only way I can describe it.

 

Even though it is not Remembrance Sunday in the UK until the Sunday closest to the 11/11 I will join you in extending a heartfelt thank you to service people everywhere. Without you we would not live in the world we do.

 

TY Collins.

 

Quite right. Thank you to all our armed forces, serving anywhere in any capacity, past, present and future.

Without the sacrifices of generations of soldiers, sailers, marines, and airman from 1775 to 2010 we would not have the freedoms we do today. We should never, ever, take those freedoms for granted; for without the blood and sweat of those standing between us and those that would do us harm, our freedoms would be swept away like so much smoke.

God bless our armed forces! God bless the forces of freedom, where ever they serve!

Light for a dark world.

 

What about the Native Americans who started fighting and dying for what was their territory in about 1500?

What about the American Colonists who fought for the British against the French and Indians?

What about everyone before 1775?

They may be history, and even ancient history, but they shaped the world we all live in today, maybe much more than colonial troops in the War of Independence.

 

Umm, I DID end by saying God bless the forces of freedom, whereever they serve!

Besides, (in case you missed it) seeing as how this thread was titled "Memorial day in the U.S." I kinda geared my post toward, you know, MEMORIAL DAY IN THE U.S. . . . rolleyes The Continental army was established by act of congress in May, of 1775 . . . which is why I chose that date. My post was not intended to be an all-encompassing one.

No, I didn't mention the Native Americans who began fighting for their territory in the 1500's against (or for) the British, French, and Spanish who had invaded such territory - in fact, that whole 200+ year drama is really complicated by the fact the Brits and the French actively enlisted warring tribes to attack the nationals of each other - breeding enmity that would mar generations . . . you want to talk about that, start a thread. It would make an interesting topic.

Nor did I mention the Roman legions that no doubt deserve tons of praise for their defense of a great empire for centuries of barbarian incursions, or those doughty Spartans that held off a force hundreds of times greater then their own. If we have a Sparta day, I will do so.

Hope this clears up any confusion for you!

 

Okay, sorry.

 

No - no sorry needed. In fact, if I came off snarky I'm sorry (wife tells me I came off snarky).

I am serious, though, about the whole drama of the interaction between colonists and native populations here being a fascinating, convoluted, and complicated topic - and does make for some interesting discussions. Few places in the world has this interaction occured at a time when written records were commonplace - also in Australia, I guess.

I was sorta being facetious about mentioning the Romans and the Spartans - but you have to agree they also (and the Greeks in general, not just Sparta) played a major role in shaping our history and where we are today . . . it's just that they, like the native americans or those other brave souls prior to 1775, were simply beyond the scope of my post.

I stick to my original post - I agreed with everything said up to then, and added my heartfelt thoughts, which were centered on American armed forces, and the history of this nation.

 

Snarky bast$$$! :-D

How about we just honor those who left for battle, and did not come home.

 

Heh, heh! Well from one snarky old Vet to all those wonderful servicemen and women, past and present, I remember and salute you all.http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g309/Zobor/salute.gif

 

Being that this is the entire point of Memorial Day, I can go with it.

And as a side note, most current military members I know are somewhat offended when someone includes them in Memorial Day wishes...they say it makes it feel as if the actual loss of life means a little less, or in some cases that they should not have come home when the soldier next to them did not.

 

By present, I'm including those that may have died today, just to be clear.

 

A partial quote from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

Click on the link above, for the full quote.

Bazza

 

I'll drink to that. I will also lift my glass in salute of those who did come home, but who didn't know if they would. The courage and dedication it takes to risk your life for something you believe in, be it an ideal or a nation, demands and deserves our respect.

To those who did come home, and to the memory of those who did not, our gratitude and respect. Thank you. :wine <- toast in honor of soldiers everywhere

 

Amen to all these sentiments. God bless all those who serve.

 

Sorry, Bazza - checked out your shortcut, but I can't find that specific paragraph listed. Did make for some interesting reading, though. The Wikipedia page it points to defines the day thus: "Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was expanded after World War I to honor dead Americans from all wars."

I didn't know the southern states had their "decoration days" as well. The aritcle goes on to state that by 1913 they had stopped being recognized as solely honoring the Confederate dead and their "lost cause" to sharing equal time with he theme of American nationalism.

Interesting article.

 

I think Reagan hit it head on.

Circa 1986

In honor of those who lost their lives while serving our country, we would like to share with you President Ronald Reagan's 1986 Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery:

Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It's a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It's a day to be with the family and remember.

I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they'll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that's good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.

Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and the Admirals Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI's general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.

Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper's son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, "I know we'll win because we're on God's side." Audie Murphy is here, Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, "Wait a minute and I'll let you speak to them." [Laughter]

Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn't wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward—in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They're only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on "Holmes dissenting in a sordid age." Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: "At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight."

All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn't do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It's hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it's the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen—the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you've seen it—three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There's something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there's an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don't really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they're supporting each other, helping each other on.

I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they're still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam—boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That's the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that's all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

 

Sorry Spad, I can't find my quote either. :confused :-o

Maybe it has been revised or maybe I clicked on one of the many links there. I can't track it down. That was the only link I accessed, I think.

Glad you found something of interest, anyhow.

Click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War for a lot more interesting stuff.

Bazza

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No matter what your politics, you got to to admit that man could make a speech. I remember the one from '86. Touching. :major

 

Challenger