This weekend is not about me, or my fellow living veterans, a smaller and smaller share of the populace. But, we are not being honored and do not wish to be honored. This weekend, this memorial is for those of our brethren that have passed on in service, or following service to our nation, in the fullness of their life.
It is calculated, estimated, (someone somewhere dreamed up) that 1.3+ million Americans have laid down their lives in defense of this country. I have no idea if that number is correct, but for sake of discussion, we will assume that it is close to accurate. Literally, we don't know for sure, because of fires in the records repositories and just crappy paperwork all along. The first and everlasting hallmark of the American military, the paperwork is crap.
400,000 of them (and growing) are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. We see those green fields and it is mostly overwhelming. The sense of honor and dignity that is there is nearly impossible to deny. There, in their hundreds of thousands, are the sons of daughters of our Manifest Destiny. It is almost more than we can absorb.
Among their ranks, in the peaceful repose their sacrifice has earned, are illiterate, uneducated, coarse, refined, impoverished, wealthy, fluent, non-English speaking, known and forever unknown. The fields there contain all that has made America, and all that will ensure America continually remakes itself.
Heroes, every single one of them, not simply for the military actions that they saw, but because they all, every one of them, died having defended the Constitution of the United States of America. Even those from other nations entombed there, died in common calamity with our dreams, desires and aspirations.
We have heard that this nation is a shining city on a hill, which beckons in freedom and glory, for all those that desire no more than to live free of the tyranny of other men. It is our most noble self, as a nation. We are the standard, the benchmark, to which others aspire. We, the people, the very idea that as a people we could contrive a governance that ultimately lies in our hands, regardless of station or class, is still the envy of the world. Our 227 years since the Constitution became our system of government has defined the standard by which all other nations have judged themselves.
I do not claim it is perfect, for we are informed by our majority Judeo-Christian faiths, that perfection rests only within God. I do not claim it is without flaw, in fact we have 26 times ratified as a nation of citizens, changes required to improve our system. I do not claim that our history is without stain, for we have practiced slavery, genocide, and today respond to race baiting and misogyny with rabid force. I have witnessed, with my own eyes, the reservation system. I have, with my own eyes, seen the ghettos, lived in some of them.
No, nowhere in this broad, beautiful land, do we even scratch the surface of perfect. But, that is not the American dream, nor the compact we have made with ourselves. We, the people, in order to form a MORE perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, did ordain and establish that Constitution.
If you listen to conventional wisdom, then the score card is poor. We have not achieved perfect. We struggle with justice. We do not possess domestic tranquility. We disproportionately rely on the poor and disadvantaged for our common defense. We have tiered and stratified the general welfare to alarming levels, and the razor's edge of liberty hangs in the balance of every commercial and campaign.
If you have not been blessed with the opportunity to see more of this world than our beautiful 50 states, allow me to at least suggest my perspective. Even in comparison to our closest allies and imitators of western culture we have a MORE perfect union than any you can find. Germany, the UK, Canada, France, Japan, even the golden dream of Denmark, Sweden, they pale in comparison to the whole of our wondrous, fractured, jagged and daring union. Our union does not unite a small ethnicity inured to thousands of years of cohabitation with some mingling around the edges. Our union does not unite a people so appalled at their own past atrocities that they have subsumed their own identity to reparation. Our union does not provide for all, in no manner, but instead shields, shepherds and strengthens all under our umbrella, to the farthest ends of the earth. Without us, the golden luster and allure of these wonderful places, become small entities on the edges of voracious hunters ready for prey.
Without our imperfect union, as divided as we may feel, German or Russian would be the only language spoken east of France, and the British Isles might still retain English, but only in the same beset way that our own Lakota retain their language. This is not bombast. This is the fruit and labor of the sacrifice, made by those heroes, in all their hundreds of thousands, finding rest for their soul upon our hallowed ground. I defy you to stand at any point in Arlington, and behold the incredible symmetry and enormity of the place, and not understand, finally, the incredible debt the entire world owes all of those honored men and women.
Like their country, they are, none of them, perfect. None of the commingled remains of the Challenger crew that are interred there, none of the commingled remains of the unknowns in our most famous tomb, none of the heroes of Ardennes, St. Lo, Normandy, Berlin, frozen Chosin, Ia Drang, Kuwait City, Baghdad, Fallujah, nor the many that passed on years after their service in honor, but joined their fellows and comrades in the eternal silent watch that they maintain.
We are none of us perfect. We are none of us worthy. We are none of us without fault, failing. But, together, we are something the world had not seen before, and has been chasing along after. We are free. We maintain the beacon of liberty to a world darkly oppressed and beset. We are that shining city on a hill, if for no other reason than that, we are together.
I submit that instead of saving hundreds on a mattress, or Jetta assembled in Mexico (wherever), that this weekend, especially this season of turmoil and distress, should be used for political debate, at the review grounds at Arlington. The darker natures that have invaded our contenders for leadership have no stamina against the gleam and brilliance of the selfless honor spread before them. The invective, the personal aggrandizement and attack, the misrepresentation, it has no home there, nor would it be tolerated.
Candidates avoid speaking in such places. In such places, the solemn duty they hope to undertake becomes so starkly evident, that even the narcissistic personality required for candidacy is cowed. In those places, there is only room for truth and light, humility before your heroes, and thankfulness for their brilliance, which yours does not match in any way. Speaking in humility, and truth, with respect and discernment would be so welcome today, would it not?
Imagine the silent sentinels, each at attention at their appointed place of duty until the Resurrection, their silent and stony disapproval of what we have allowed to come about from their sacrifice and their promise. I do. And, it makes me kind of sad about myself, that I have participated. On every continent, there are graves on hallowed ground, given by sovereign nations to heroes from our soil, that spilled their last life blood in defense of our ideals, and THEIR homes. They stand guard, eternally faced toward our nearest shore. In every corner of our land, brothers of the largest assembled military presence in America, Arlington National Cemetery, stand their own silent sentinel.
This Memorial Day, even if you go mattress shopping, at least consider that. Take back control of this nation that these men and women, of common and yet extraordinary stock, who died after honorable service, loved and love still. Refuse to allow the perverse and embarrassing discourse we hear. Stand up and demand that adults act like adults. When they don't, ask them this simple question. Would you stand in the center of Arlington, and spew that filth, amongst our greatest and most revered? Would you have the gall and misery within you, to contaminate that place with the antithesis of what they all served and loved? Would you present yourself to them, as an honorable descendant of their family?
For, we are in the midst of picking the Commander in Chief. We are in the midst of trying to find someone worthy of giving a lawful order to the likes of Alvin York, Audie Murphy, Roy Benavides, Chris Kyle, Nathan Hale, Ulysses S. Grant, Karl Brashear, Gus Grissom, Allen Shepherd, Neal Armstrong, Robbie Stetham, Grace Hopper. Please by all means, look those names up that you do not know. These are the titans of our history, the fabric of our unity and the blood of our nation. They are our greatest and best. When you cast a vote for President, are you doing justice to what they stand for, and for what they did and produced?
I personally knew Robbie Stetham. Now Master Chief Stetham, posthumous, who was one of my biggest sources of pride when I made Master Chief, I was there with Robbie. I did not deserve the comparison, but I was just proud to share the title he was given. My service was nothing, compared to these men, and yet, because this is America and has remained America, it is everything.
There are others, Arthur L. Goode, James M. Carroll, David M. Hanson, Genie Mercer, William H. Hill Jr., Leon Maddox, Harold Nester, Julius Meyer, Robert Goode. These names are not notable in history, they are however, notable to me. I feel their eyes on me, as I discharge my duty as a citizen.
That is what Memorial Day means. Stop and remember that there is a long line, back to 1775, of those who sacrificed their last measure, for the idea of freedom. I know how far short of their goal we consistently come. But, I am not ashamed of their effort, and I will not bemoan the fate of the nation they built. Think of them, each time you talk politics. Do your statements stand their scrutiny? Think of them every time you vote. Are you picking a candidate that upholds their ideal, honors their sacrifice? And, if you find, as I have this election, that there is no candidate or position that fits that standard, vow to make it better in the future.
But, have a care what you promise these people. We have lost 1.3 million good and bad souls, in defense of this nation. Over half of that total comes from the Civil War. We are still the only nation capable of actually fighting this nation to a prolonged victory. Never, ever discount the power, reach and ability of the men and women gone before for our ideal. Keep your promises to them.
And, on this weekend, offer at least a prayer for their souls, for their rest, and for the blessing of God, on us, who they served and protected so valiantly. They stand an everlasting watch over us. Straighten your back and bend your knee, to give them some honor. Then go buy the Jetta, just don't make this weekend about that, or the start of summer, or the whatever. At least, at the very least, thank the Lord they gave their measure, and pray more do not need to pay that price to ensure your freedom to offer that prayer.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. That is the Bible, and one of those great universal truths.
I say this, greater honor hath no person than this, that they lay down their life in defense of this nation. Do you believe that too?
GLYASDI
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