Growing up with a Marine Corp Dad you become very patriotic at a young age. This has stuck with me throughout the years. Yesterday when I was driving back home from Northern Minnesota it was so nice to see all the flags and flowers decorating the cemeteries - small or big. White crosses, American Flags, flowers and ribbons.
One of my concerns is that patrizism doesn't seem to be passed down to our kids. The cemetaries weren't full of 20 years olds putting flags and flowers on the grave sites but men and women in walkers - barely able to get out of a car, but still paying their respects.
There were a number of pictures that was being passed around in an email last week and in the collage of pictures was one of a man in a wheelchair standing as the Flags came down a street in a parade. It was sad. Not because the man in the wheelchair was standing up, but because everyone else - all much younger then him, were still sitting down in their chairs or on the curb. The price of freedom and the respect of the American Flag was not an understanding of theirs.
Maybe to many people don't know someone who has given up their lives for us, who have fought in a war to protect us, or who have served a nation. Maybe they don't understand the true meaning of "giving up your life for others".
I am not sure what it will take to get that idea and feeling passed down to future generations, but I think we have to--no, we need too.
As a life time member of the Ladies VFW Auxilary I have to own this as part of my future desire. As a daughter of a Marine Corp Vet that sacrafied so much, I must own this, as a citizen of the USA I must own this. I don't know how anyone can not be moved by seeing thousands of white crosses in a row, or an old man in a wheelchair standing to pay respect for a flag, or by seeing an American Flag draped over a coffin of a fallen soldier.
It doesn't matter if you support the war, what matters is you support the troops.
So as you drive around today going to your favorite fishing spot or bar, or head to friends for the BBQ stop and remember and talk to your kids about what today means.
Red - The blood that was and is shed every day so that we can live in a free nation.
White - The crosses that mark the graves of those who have given their lives for our rights.
Blue - The hope for a new day where war is not the answer and we no longer have to bury a child for our freedom.
Happy Memorial Day Everyone.
Amen Sister!
ReplyDeleteToday my son arrives home from the Naval Academy. He will spend the month of June with us... but he will spend the rest of his life defending his beloved country. For the past 3 years I have known where his head was when it hit a pillow. I have one more year of that comfort and then I release him to the Navy - who will control him for a long long while. And there will be many days when I know not his location. The military is something many people don't respect. What is sad to me is that if we didn't have it - NONE - of us would be here today.