Please Remember the Real Meaning of Memorial Day – TSP Rewind Epi – 191
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Today We Honor the Fallen
TSPC will return tomorrow, I take this day off with my family like most of America and I leave you with these thoughts on this day.
Today is Memorial Day and I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone today of what Memorial Day is all about. Many well meaning people even get it wrong in a way. My inbox tends to fill up with “thanks for your service” emails around Memorial Day. I appreciate it, there is nothing wrong with thanking a vet today, yet it is not really the day to thank vets many seem to believe it to be.
It seems to me that many think Memorial Day is like Veterans Day Part Two, it isn’t. Again no day is a bad day to thank a vet but if we become convinced that Memorial Day is about those of us that served and came back home, we miss the point. Memorial Day is more somber, it is about those who fell in battle and never again got up, it is about those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, it bluntly is about those who died.
Today at some point just pause and think about that. Think about the 4,400 of our US service members that have fallen in Iraq, the 2,300 in Afghanistan, the 47,000 in Vietnam, 33,000 in Korea, 291,000 in WWII, 53,000 in WWI or perhaps the 212,000 that fell on both sides in the War Between the States.
You don’t have to be for any war past or present to respect men and women who will give their lives for what they believe and fight the wars that politicians initiate. There are days for just about everything now. Days for bosses, secretaries, days for this and that and anything Hallmark can come up with.
What you won’t find in most greeting card stores is a Memorial Day Card, because those who would receive the card can’t open it, read it and feel good that someone cares. All they can hope for is that someone remembers their sacrifice, perhaps a flower or a wreath on their graves (if they even have one) or a comrade who is now living with a zeal for life in their memory.
Memorial day my friends is to remember those who served and died. Enjoy the day off if you have it, just try to remember the cost of this day. Some say you can’t count the cost, sadly you can and the numbers are very large. If you want to put it in perspective, just view the US Military Casualties of War Page on Wikipedia.
I will end with this though. There are some that begrudge all the back yard BBQs, trips to the beech and flat out enjoying of a day off. They seem to feel we should all wear sack cloths and put ashes on our faces today. I disagree, in fact very much so. While I truly feel our nation should stop interfering around the world in so many ways, I know the hearts of those who serve. They believe in what they are defending.
And a family in a back yard, joyfully sharing each others company symbolizes that better than any statue, wall or memorial ever could. It is okay to be happy today, those who fell would want you to, just take a simple moment in this day and recall their sacrifice.
P.S. – I have run this same article simply adjusting the numbers of the fallen for the current conflicts as necessary for almost as long as The Survival Podcast has existed. This year I felt compelled to add this addendum. I know a lot of people out there in my audience are anti war and really dislike things like Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Let me just say I might be as anti war as is possible for a person to be. Seeing the only alternative is being pro war, I don’t have much of an ethical dilemma with that.
The loudest such voices though against things like honoring service come from purist anarchists and libertarians. Folks I consider myself to be both an anarchist and a libertarian. Unlike some though it seems, I have not forgotten that I was not born one. For three years I served this nation as a US Army Airborne Solider. I never killed anyone during that time, I would have done so if called to. I am grateful beyond words that I was never called on to do so, that I don’t have to live with that reality.
I served as a young man who came from a family that served. I had grandparents, uncles, a father, etc. who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, it was expected. I believed 100% that America was not just good but always acted for good and that we were never wrong. Why? I was taught this like most are. Let’s be honest most that don’t serve, do not choose not to because they are anti war, anti state or anti interventionist. As only one half of one percent of all Americans since the draft stopped in 73 have chosen military service, we know the vast majority do not serve.
Additionally we know that Americans continually elect people who get the nation into new conflicts, expand existing ones and continue the policies that lead to both. Clearly most people have no real concern in stopping unnecessary wars, I don’t blame them either. They like most have been taught that this is how things have to be, they believe it too.
The difference in the .5% that serve is that they do not only believe it, they are willing to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs. They are people willing to risk their lives and die if need be to preserve what they believe in. Today we stop to reflect and honor those who took that risk, and fell never to get up again. And in time, it is soliders who become the most anti war among us. Try to remember that and try to remember that where ever you are on your journey though this life today, you didn’t start there.
If only we were to follow the words of advice given by a former solider and president to a graduating class at the US Military Academy in 1947, we might actually become what we claim to be.
“War is mankind’s most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington — not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower – Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy, 6/3/47
Like many I ask where has this spirit gone. I also know the answer, it pains me to say it, but it lives in the hearts of those who serve, and in the memories of those who never returned.
thanks …..
Thank you for the reminder to honor and appreciate the sacrifice of those who gave their all.
Of all the Memorial Day comments yours is the most appropriate. Thank you
Well said!
Great point. There were a lot of lives lost and they should be remembered each year. It adds more meaning to the Memorial Day.
Believe me, I know the real meaning of memorial day! I lost my husband in an F-4 Aug. of 1980 in the Sahara dessert in Egypt. He was in the Air Force ,a Captain and loved this country more than anything else in this world. Although he did not want to die at the age of 32, he was more than glad to die for this country! He loved flying and serving our country. Our children were 8 and 5 and has not been easy for me or my 2 children (ages 8 and 5) at the time growing up without a father. I am sure he would be very disappointed in the evil that is evident in our country.today.
Having lost friends and family members in combat, I appreciate the explanation you have given. I try to remind people that those sacrifices were for us. Thanks again for permission to enjoy ourselves as the best memorial for the fallen.
Thanks Jack,
You make great points and the message stays true.
Thanks for all that you do.
Regards
https://youtu.be/5hfEBupAeo4 <All Wars are Banker’s Wars
“You don’t have to be for any war past or present to respect men and women who will give their lives for what they believe and fight the wars that politicians initiate.” <<< VERY well said Jack.
I shared your message to Twitter, Spreely, GAB and MeWe. It’s a message I hope many out there will read and take to heart. Couldn’t share on Fakebook as I’m doing 30 days in “jail”—again/again/again/again.
Thanks Jack, It’s always good to remember the one’s who gave it all.
https://youtu.be/JSxOQt9WPqU <Ron Paul was/is right.
RonPaulLibertyReport
Published on May 27, 2019
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The best way to support our troops is to bring them home as quickly as possible.
Today is a memorial day of those we have lost. Let’s not add to the list.
As a Viet Nam Era Marine, married to an FMF Hospital Corpsman who served 13 months in Viet Nam, and in a family where 15 of us have served since WWII, three of whom committed suicide, I thank you! This is exactly how I feel!
When I was young I thought war wasn’t right because it would put me in a position where I might have to kill another man for no other reason than that someone had convinced him that he needed to fight my people, and someone had convinced us that we needed to fight his people. I made it to the end of the war we call the Vietnam War without being drafted, and I am grateful for that.
As I grew up I learned much more about wars, warriors, and the skills of fighting. I could see the value in learning a Martial Art to help oneself to survive a violent attack by some person gone crazy or desperate. But I was a young working person before I came across a book that characterized war as a form of human insanity. I had never read any pacifist literature, not even the words of Eisenhower such as those quoted above, but to call it a human insanity seemed very correct to me.
Later on, I found out more about those people who work so hard to convince one group that it should fight another group (instead of settle peacefully as they would naturally do) while also working to convince the other side that fighting was, likewise, the necessary action. And then I understood why war is such an insane action to take. Why not just locate the Third Party instead, then settle peacefully?
But I also knew that fighting for territory or power was portrayed by history as just a part of life, at least among the ancient people who seemingly had no other solutions. I wonder now if that is really true. But I know that the warrior spirit and the skills of a fighter have been valued by societies for more centuries than anyone can count. Though to fight to kill is usually unnecessary and unwise, to fight is often necessary. Your adversary might be another human gone mad, but it might also be an animal, a storm, a disease or some other destructive power of nature.
Another thing I learned along the way is that those soldiers come back. The story of James Leininger (as told in the book Soul Survivor, written by his parents) is probably the best known case of this that has captured public attention. And when those people do return, they often have to deal with some trace of disquiet left on their personality by the war experience. So it is with all of us, but this gives us a new twist on our long traditions of honoring our dead. They need to know that their choices have been respected, and if poor choices, then forgiven.
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Good post.
All very well said. Thank you.
Nope.
This is a day to feel righteous anger at our society that allows so many young people to get tricked into doing evil things for evil people. And in way too many cases actively helps to trick them.
Confucius said, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.” Well, enlisting = promising to help murder whichever poor different-looking foreigners the politicians are pointing you at any given week.
Your article quoted Eisenhower that “for Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.” That does not happen with standing armies and overseas invasions and occupying foreign lands!
It happens through the Militia (responsible, capable individuals) who voluntarily decide to take up arms and band together to defend themselves. But only for the duration of the threat! Once the threat is eliminated they go back to their normal lives.
If today is a day for somber reflection, perhaps we should be reflecting whether all those youngsters who died in vain, or had their lives destroyed by the evil acts they were coerced to commit, will ever be able to forgive us for the parts we played in putting them in those awful circumstances.
Anyone that thinks every solider that ever died for this country died for no reason is as clueless as those who think they all died fighting for “our freedom”.
The extremes on both sides of this debate are fueled by arrogance, ignorance and nonsense.