U.S. should not rest on long-ago victories
T his time of the year, beginning with Memorial Day, we enter into a yearly celebration I would call America’s patriotic season.
We as a family had quite a bit to think about, be thankful for and celebrate. My husband’s father, a World War II veteran, was the first volunteer to join the 82nd Airborne. He jumped with the second wave into Normandy.
This Memorial Day, invited by the congregation of his church, he decided for the first time to talk about his experiences publicly. He lives in Utah, so our family could not be with him on that day, but we will have a recording to pass on to our children and grandchildren.
The nation as a whole decided to tape and record many of the histories and stories of our surviving World War II veterans. How strange that we have not done this before. How much wisdom and history might have been lost? How long has it taken to build a memorial to the heroes of that war and to recover their stories? How many lives changed for the better because of the brave acts of those fathers, brothers, friends?
One of my brothers-in-law was wounded in Vietnam and fought the demons of that war for a long time. Several years ago, I located the name of a friend on the Memorial Wall to that war. We have finally come together as a nation to honor the men who fought there and gave their lives so strangers might know the freedoms we hold so dear.
We as a nation are engaged in yet another war. A couple of weeks ago that war in Iraq moved very close, walked right over our doorstep and into our home. My 18-year-old WSU sophomore visited Ephrata’s high school graduation to see some of her old friends and met a young Marine. She invited him for family night and we saw a lot of him during the following week.
He was polite, standing at ease a lot, apologetic for the few times he laughed, very quiet, yet his eyes told a story. They spoke of a time in Mosul, of fighting, of killing, of dying and death, of not wanting to go back and of a deep sadness. I wondered if I could ask a question and he said, “Yes, I guess I need to talk, but I will not volunteer anything.”
He fights sleep and at its mention his eyes show a deep resolve not to relax. Sleep, relaxing for us, brings him scenes of the attacks, the dead, the faces, the ghosts, the demons. Sleep has become another enemy.
He told of anti-war protesters on the dock when his ship returned and of somebody spitting on him. In this short week, he left boot prints in our hearts and all we could do is love him and hold him and let him go, back to Iraq and the war.
He asked me how other men did it, in previous wars, how they could leave all they loved behind and go and fight.
I do not have a clear answer, more a conviction, a thought.
I have grown to love this country. I have strived to understand this republic and the great principles it stands for. I have studied its history, tried to honor its heroes, celebrate its holidays. I have planted its love for freedom deep in my heart and nourish it. And I have gained the understanding that we, the United States of America, are a shining beacon of life and light and peace and freedom for the whole world.
As President Reagan said, we are truly that shining city of hope on a hill that freedom-loving people everywhere look to. And don’t we dare hide our light. We have been given more than any other nation on this earth and with great blessings come great responsibilities.
As Independence Day approaches, we as a people need to not be tossed and driven by the winds and waves of campaign slogans and promises. We need to study the facts, learn of our history, read what the heroes of our nation had to say and realize that freedoms are blessings to be shared and fought for daily.
If we choose to rest on the victories our fathers gained with their blood, we soon will not be worthy to have the torch of freedom burn in our nation any longer. I know that our soldiers understand as they put their lives in harm’s way in a country so far away.
It is high time that we begin to understand also and act on that knowledge. We need to become again one nation under God, with liberty and freedom for all. And hopefully none of our soldiers will have to come home and be spat on again.