This Memorial Day, Thank Vets by taking up their Standard
Every Memorial Day we fly the national flag to honor our fallen military, particularly those we knew and loved. We attend parades, visit graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, shedding tears for those we never knew personally at the blowing of Taps.
At this writing there are still a some aging veterans of WWII with us, members of “The Greatest Generation”, who rose to the challenge of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’, having gone through the Great Depression, countered the invasion of European nations and the bombing of London. The last straw, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was the provocation that caused every able-bodied man and many women to put aside personal goals and enlist in the military. Many laid down their lives, dying on foreign soil in defense of the principle of freedom as framed in our Constitution.
Their bodies still lie under white crosses and stars of David in huge cemeteries in Europe, visited by those who never met them but who crossed the ocean to remember and honor them.
Every community has ceremonies to pay tribute to a dying breed. Vets from succeeding wars, Korean, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan, carry flags and march in parades wearing the medals and emblems of their service. Some sell artificial poppies, ironically, to support disabled vets who returned with injuries and emotional trauma that prevent them from returning to their previous vocations. Many of us know someone suffering from
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and how it affects families and communities.
Recently, I visited the campus of Uniformed Services University (USU) in Bethesda, Maryland to celebrate my son Ian’s graduation from their School of Medicine and his promotion to Captain in the US Army. On Parent’s Day I heard presentations from his professors, military and civilian attended Baccalaureate ceremony and witnessed as the new docs took a voluntary, additional Oath for Christian Doctors as veteran doctors present reaffirmed their oath over and above the Hippocratic Oath taken on graduation day.
On May 15th we attended graduation at the impressive Daughters of the American Revolution Hall not far from the White House in Washington DC. We listened to anthems plaid expertly by The President’s Own Band comprised of US Marines. I was dazzled by all the pomp and circumstance and the military brass assembled that day and reaffirmed my commitment as a military mom. You can keep your American Idols who dance and sing their hearts out…I want to celebrate the heroes who make America possible by pulling together under the greatest Constitution ever written.
That our President will not find the time or conviction to attend Memorial Day celebrations in Arlington Cemetery is of great concern. Why doesn’t the president celebrate our past, hard won victories or honor those who preserved our freedoms? He seems to be driven by global political ambitions and a faith that is not that of our founding. To him we are no longer living in a Christian Nation. It is left to us to remind him of the principles our veterans fought and died for and in so doing teach our children what is truly American.
As we prepare to remember our dead, President Obama and Congress wielded the surgical knife over our military’s budget and threaten the health, morale and welfare of our troops by repealing the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Law”. What is next…flying the rainbow flag in battle? This president who is quick to telegraph our timetable of withdrawal to the Taliban is slow to respond to terrorist attacks on our own soil and will not close our borders to those who have vowed to destroy us and our way of life.
Recently, while driving in Vermont we happened upon the Vermont Memorial to Viet Nam Vets. I took the time to reflect on their sacrifice, even remembering the Green Mountain Boys who went to Fort Ticonderoga to fight for our foundling nation. As a mother of three sons I thought about the collateral emotional and economic damage on those families. I heard the bird calls of that area and thought how those in combat must have longed to hear the familiar sounds of home but instead watered the Tree of Liberty with their blood.
Back in Massachusetts Senator Kerry thinks Tea Party Patriots have a “comprehension gap” and Governor Patrick likens freedom of speech to “sedition”. What would he think of the thousands of farmers who marched from their farms in Uxbridge and a dozen surrounding towns of Worcester and Springfield to make a statement to the crown in 1774, the summer before “the shot heard round the world” was fired in Lexington? That August “thousands and thousands of farmers and artisans (workers) seized power from every crown-appointed (hack/crony) official in Massachusetts outside of Boston” according to Ray Raphael, historian and author of The First American Revolution: before Lexington and Concord.
“The functionaries of British rule cowered and collapsed no match for the collective force of patriotic farmers according to an eye witness”.
Ever since my son first put on his uniform four years ago he has received thanks from strangers for his service, though so far that has been done by studying hard and graduating with honors. Imagine the collective power we can muster as we come alongside our current military with the support they deserve in prayer and cheers and speaking on their behalf until our leadership hears the people.
Our president has said he aims to change our nation and has already left us dizzy with change we do not want. What support will we give the 18 year-old from our town who joined the military because he or she wants to preserve the America they know and love?
Chris Noonan Funnell free-lance writer from the Boston area and yes, she is related to that outer Noonan journalist, Erica. 5/27/10
