I had meant to post this on Memorial day 2013, however distraction over took my intentions.  Giving another lesson of the importance of finishing what you start if it has meaning and the importance of knowing when it is meaningless.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  It is a day of reflection on the sacrifices made on behalf of our nation by those men and women of the armed forces of the United States.  It is the day we as a nation remember those who paid for the continuation of our form of government and the freedoms it was set up to provide its citizenry.  How ironic is the fact that the very things they fought and died for are under attack; not just from other nations but from within our own government and people.

To the best of my knowledge this day was originally called “Decoration Day” started sometime after the end of the Civil War.  It originated to give acknowledgement to 250 souls lying in an unmarked mass grave.  Those were United States Military that died in our most personal conflict.  They died so slavery would not survive within our borders. They died so the United States would survive as originally designed by the fathers of our Nation.  There are a number of different but very similar possible origins of this day of memory but they all revolved around the same reasoning.  Giving thanks for maximum service rendered.  As a nation, we have been involved in many more military conflicts since that time and as “Decoration Day” morphed into Memorial Day. 

I have been part of a society and part of a family which has been involved in the aftermaths of warfare (two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam, numerous skirmishes and ultimately Iraq and Afghanistan).  My grandfather, my uncles and aunts, cousins, friends and acquaintances were involved in one or more of those military actions.  WWI used my Grandpa Henry.  It sent him back home with a mind and memories filled with the horrors of war and anger toward a God that he couldn’t understand ever again.  When WWII broke out he was in his late 40’s. Even with his hatred of the war, he tried to get back into the uniform of his country, willing to stand up for what was right.  WWII saw four of my uncles and one of my aunts donning the uniforms of the Army and the Navy.  Our family was one of the fortunate families that did not suffer a loss of life.  I might mention that one of my uncles served on four different ships that were blown out from under him.  One blast sent him up into the air and then crashing down into his gun bunker, God had seen fit that a corpsman found him still alive after being left for dead. 

The ones that we are remembering on Memorial Day are marked by the hundreds of thousands of grave monuments throughout the World.  Far more American souls have been lost protecting humanity than those lost for the United States.  I remember my grade school Decoration Days, coming home with the little red poppies made by our veterans to help provide for the medical needs of the wounded that survived and in the memory of those who lost their lives. The use of poppies as a symbol originated in France as the real flowers were placed on the thousands of graves filled with American blood and sacrifice.  France’s way of recognizing and thanking our country for efforts and prices paid for their continuance as a sovereign nation.  France is not alone as a nation that exists upon the sea of American blood drenched souls.  We owe a debt of gratitude to so many, a debt not ever to be paid in kind.

The end of WWI saw the end of our country’s political will to wage war.  When the Korean conflict occurred, our country’s politics chose to do battle without the commitment to win.  Our politicians, feeling guilt over the use of Atomic power to end WWII, could not bring themselves to call Korea a war.  They instead called it a police action. Nationally, we looked at the horror of the atomic bomb only in terms of the devastation it caused. That blinded our nation to the lives that act saved.  President Truman was strong enough and wise enough to make the hard choice needed to stop the war.  He was smart enough to know that war, waged when necessary, must be fought with complete commitment to win.  The Korean “police action” has never been won or lost by either side because of one side’s inability to win and our lack of commitment to win.  In the very least though we were still united behind our warriors and they were recognized and appreciated by most of us.  They could still hold their heads high and proud as we continued to recognize their sacrifice as our warriors equal to their predecessors. 

Those who survived WWII returned home victorious. They were looked upon by most of us as our defenders and as our conquering heroes.  Those who returned from Korea were, for the most part, ignored by our politicians and most of us who were not personally connected to those surviving warriors.  Somewhere between Korea and Vietnam things changed.  It’s as if our entire national psyche had taken a hard turn to the left.  Again our fear of being perceived as the bad guys caused us to behave haphazardly.  We had watched McCarthy ferret out communism, our cold war enemy, with such zeal that was found to be reprehensible.  That disdain translated into a reversal of society’s pendulum until we have reached a point at which some view our heroes as villains.  In particular, those returning from the Vietnam War found themselves reviled, spat upon and rejected by those whose rights to freedom they were sent to protect. The Vietnam War has proven to be the most noticeable schism point in our political history since the Civil War.  The aftermath of that vitriolic passion has spawned a nation no longer united, a nation that has been dramatically weakened by division with a government which sends our military into conflict with half-hearted resolve.

Most recently we have witnessed the effect of anti-war rhetoric dissolve the unity of purpose in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, into fragments lacking the strength or the will to win.  It was that brief moment of unity (the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq) that could have been put into history as a war of the past. That particular opportunity quickly passed as the political fears were fanned by memories not of the victories achieved by our military and the unity of our citizens prior to Viet Nam, but by the dissent during and after those wars.  Our country no longer spends our country’s blood and treasure wisely and with strong resolve and purpose.  Those are spent instead to maintain appearances. 

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who gave all for the higher purpose of our country.  A day to remember the importance of unity misplaced in our history.  A day to remember the richness of our heritage, our gifts, and the biblical adage that has guided our society’s higher purpose, “to whom much is given, much is expected”.  Many have complained about our position as the policeman on the streets of the world and say we have no obligation to better the conditions imposed by tyranny.  How much better to accept that we are in fact our brother’s keeper and we need to be the good Samaritan rather than those that neglected to assist one in need.

Pray for our country and our world.