ProetryPlace Blog 54 Lest We Forget

    The scene on our television screen was of the crowd gathered on the National Mall for the National Memorial Day Concert. The cameras panned to symbols of our great country—the capitol dome, the Washington Monument. The winner of “American Idol” sang the National Anthem. The National Symphony Orchestra played. Other popular singers belted out patriotic songs. Dignitaries spoke briefly—General Colin Powell and various chiefs of staff of the military.

    Interspersed with all the not-quite as-usual stuff, actors and actresses, as surrogates for both the living and the dead, spoke their stories.

    A Gold Star Mother spoke of the loss of her son, her love for him, her pride, her everlasting grief.

    A young veteran of the Army spoke of returning to the battlegrounds of Afghanistan after suffering a severe head wound and months of hospitalization. On his second tour he lost both arms and legs to a roadside bomb. After many more months of pain and suffering, surgery and despair, he found courage once again to take up the battle of life and live. He is now engaged to be married.

    The surrogates spoke other similar tales of valor, loss and triumph. Recorded scenes of battle from WWII to the present reminded viewers of our country’s many wars in defense of our freedom and that of others living far from our shores and with those battles, the price paid by our young and healthy men and women in casualties to their minds and bodies. We viewed the orderly rows of simple, white marble tomb stones that mark hundreds of thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery, a small fraction of the millions who have made the sacrifice in the history of our country and now lie at rest.

                                                                   

    Honor guards of all the military services presented the colors while men and women who had served in that branch stood at attention, proud and humble. A tenor sang the Lord’s Prayer.  

    There were no fireworks for this solemn holiday, one given more to gravesite visits than to parades. It is a day to honor those who gave all in defending the freedom that all the rest of us still enjoy like no other country on this earth. It is a day to think of those still serving while we enjoy the comfort and safety of our homes and families. It is a day to offer thanks.

    Patriotic song, prayer and speeches are fitting for the occasion but can never be adequate to fully pay tribute or express our gratitude to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. They did not wish to die. Their loss is our loss. Let us honor them by living a life they would have been proud to live.

Memorial Day

Honor those who died at war—

backyard barbeques

Richard Allen Anderson http://richardandersonblogs.blogspot.com