Every Memorial Day week end we take the time, in between parades,
barbeques and beach parties, to think about those who gave their lives on
behalf of our country’s ideals.
This
piece is not about griping or preaching; it is about a reality which seems to dodge many who celebrate the
memory of someone who may have been family, friend or just a local boy/girl who
died in the midst of his or her service time.
Most
of these kids, with the exception of those we “affectionately” called (with all due respect, earned in spades)
“lifers”, went into the armed forces to get away from a miserable or non
existent home life, a bleak future or just –back in the Viet Nam era, which is
my reference point- because their numbers came up in the draft. Yet, this same
group mixture of malcontents, misfits, non-believers, believers and volunteers,
eventually became a group of trained individuals who, at some point, decided
that in order to meet their commitment and perhaps survive, they had to give
their all; including the possibility of giving up their lives. In Viet Nam
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| In Memory of those who left us... |
They
were sent to fight to a part of the world which meant little or nothing to the
vast majority of them as individuals, an unidentifiable country with a name
most could not even spell before getting there; to fight a war which was never officially
declared and where they were egged on by a government which, at the same time
it was doling out contracts worth millions, was tying their (our, for I was in the Army then, although
not in the actual war zone) hands with politically induced limits which
almost guaranteed the eventual, disastrous outcome.
After
all those sacrificial deaths, what is visually remembered -especially “first
paged” by the same press which fed on the daily carnage to spur their own
interests- is the picture of that last helicopter with people hanging on as if
their lives depended on this last ride out, leaving the roof of an abandoned
embassy which, much like a derelict ship, was being left to sink in the waves
of a maelstrom...
If
we take this and extend the same parameters out to the men and women in uniform
who have fought in the different wars our country has been, we find that the
over all picture is much the same. Yet, these men and women went, fought,
spilled their blood, suffered through incredibly bad physical and emotional
conditions and, in always too many instances, gave their lives… because they
believed in a system which guarantees that we, as individuals, have inalienable
rights which will be, at all times, upheld by a government which has been
elected in the trust it will do so. Sometimes
it seems that the elected officials tend to forget this sacred covenant, in the
pursuit of their own agenda.
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| ... so that the ones who come behind will have the same rights. |
It
is at these times that we, as people, have to once again take up the arms of
the voting booth, and make sure that those who have betrayed our trust cannot
continue to get away with it… And this, friends, is also an intrinsic part of
the system for which so many have given their all throughout the history of
this great nation.
I
will say, not “happy” Memorial Day but… “Proud Memorial Day”. To our brethren
in arms; those who gave their lives and to those who, by being their families
and friends, also suffered a grave loss. Let’s never forget their sacrifice or
the reasons for which they fought and died.
Be
Well … Be Back!!!
Final Notes:
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may take them away from their loved ones… Every request is heard, and
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… Bienvenidos!!!
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