Text 28936, 124 rader
Skriven 2007-05-29 10:07:33 av Mimi Gallandt (1:123/789.0)
Kommentar till text 28934 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: My Memorial Day post from my blog.
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John Hull -> All wrote:
JH> Today is a fairly rare day in my life. It happens to be my birthday,
JH> which is of no great import in and of itself; and it also happens to be
JH> Memorial Day. Both events on the same day has only happened a handful
JH> of times in my life. It has caused me to think of things I normally
JH> spend little time on during the year, and in a manner one must almost
JH> call pensive.
JH> First, I am a patriotic American. I have studied American history,
JH> particularly military history, all my life. I am fascinated by the
JH> confluence of historical events that led to the birth of this most
JH> unique of nations in the history of civilization. I have a lot of
JH> respect for the people who created and fought for this nation, and the
JH> millions of men and women who have sacrificed to make it what it is.
JH> Second, I am a student of the history of civilization and the forces
JH> that shape ideas and cultures. I dearly love the ancient history of
JH> Greece and Rome, and particularly Egypt of the Pharoahs. But it is the
JH> history of the last 250 years that is most important and contains the
JH> most food for thought. Despite all the wars and intrigues of kings and
JH> emperors, popes, and tyrants, and the plain common folk, there has been
JH> more progress made in the last 250 years on all fronts than at any other
JH> time in human history. It is even more so, because I am living it.
JH> I can remember when people still drove the old pre-war cars from the
JH> late 30's because manufacturing had not yet caught up with demand for
JH> new cars. I remember listening to 'The Bickersons' on radio before
JH> people had TV sets. I remember the nation-wide craze over Walt Disney's
JH> Davy Crocket, and how proud I was of that cheesy coonskin cap. I
JH> remember watching my first Republican Party convention on a tiny black
JH> and white TV with my dad, and wearing a button that said "I Like IKE" to
JH> school every day.
JH> As I began to get a bit older, I started paying more attention to
JH> science, and developed a life-long interest in archaeology and
JH> paleontology. I remember standing on the porch with my dad watching as
JH> the Russian Sputnik satellite streaked overhead, and how scared
JH> everybody was of the Russians even though all the adults clammed up
JH> whenever the kids came into the room. But we knew the world had changed
JH> overnight.
JH> I remember meeting several friends of my father who had served in the
JH> military during World War II and the Korean War. One of them was an
JH> Englishman who had been involved in the chase and sinking of the
JH> battleship Bismarck and who still carried a piece of German shrapnel in
JH> his back from that fight. It slowly began to sink in that we were
JH> involved in a war of nerves and brinkmanship with the Soviets, and that
JH> was forcibly brought home with the "duck and cover" nuclear attack
JH> drills at school.
JH> Then, I remember hearing Nixon and Kennedy debate on the radio, and how
JH> glad I was that Nixon was so much better; only to have that sentiment
JH> crushed when Kennedy won by a landslide, and people said it was because
JH> Kennedy knew how to use TV to his advantage. That was my first real
JH> lesson in political gamesmanship. I remember sitting, too, at my
JH> friend's house listening to his uncle tell about how he had narrowly
JH> escaped capture by the Cubans during the Bay of Pigs, and how Kennedy
JH> had sold the Cuban freedom fighters and their US allies down the river.
JH> I never really processed all that until years later, because it wasn't
JH> too long before I watched as someone murdered President Kennedy one
JH> morning in Dallas. Democrat or not, I was horrified that someone would
JH> actually kill the President, and like most people I was glad when Jack
JH> Ruby killed Oswald a few days later. It wasn't until many years later
JH> that I came to the conclusion that Oswald had been a dupe and that
JH> somebody else actually did the deed.
JH> There were many other events after that, but nothing really stands out
JH> until 1968. That period of the mid-60's to the mid-70's was another
JH> life altering series of events. Kent State, the Gulf of Tonkin
JH> Incident, the Tet Offensive, Khe Sanh, my best friend dying in Cambodia
JH> trying to save some pinned down Marines, other school friends never
JH> returning from Vietnam, and my own baptism of fire in 1972 off the coast
JH> of North Vietnam. The thing that I remember the most, and what hurt the
JH> most, was the way my country abandoned its own veterans to the ridicule
JH> of those on the left. As long as I live, I will never be able to
JH> forgive people like Jane Fonda, John Kerry, and the countless faceless
JH> others who spit on returning GIs, who called them baby killers, and
JH> murderers. We didn't ask to be sent over there, and we did our best in
JH> spite of that because our country asked us to, and we didn't deserve the
JH> treatment we got when we came home.
JH> Today, I see much of the same mentality among those on the left. They
JH> make trips to the stronghold of our enemy and make statements that put
JH> our troops in the field at risk. For twenty years we watched in
JH> frustration as terrorists attacked us almost with impunity in various
JH> places around the world while we did nothing. Then, the ultimate insult
JH> of 9/11, and we finally stood up and said enough is enough. I was proud
JH> that we were finally going to do something, and our troops have
JH> performed beyond expectation. But, once again, the left has gotten cold
JH> feet, and the the mind-numbing crush of fear is crawling up their backs.
JH> They are afraid of staying the course, saying that we are sacrificing
JH> our troops for nothing. They just can't seem to get it into their heads
JH> that this enemy will not stop and will not be satisfied until Islam
JH> rules the world. They don't seem to care that setting a date for
JH> leaving Iraq is the same as giving our enemies a timetable on how to
JH> defeat us, and that it puts thousands more troops at risk than actually
JH> fighting and winning would do.
JH> So, at the end of the day, I know that we have to stay the course, that
JH> our troops are volunteers and are committed to completing the mission
JH> (many are on their 4th active duty tour in Iraq or Afghanistan), and
JH> that our very way of life is at stake here. We are the greatest country
JH> in the history of mankind. We have an obligation to everyone in the
JH> world who loves freedom, and wants to live free of oppression and
JH> tyranny. But, most of all, we owe a debt of gratitude and our
JH> allegiance to those men and women who are going in harm's way because
JH> their country called on them to do so. They are the finest Americans it
JH> has been my privilege to know over the last 57 years.
Well said! Thanks for serving the country. BTW because you remember all those
things from the 50s you might enjoy reading Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of
the Thunderbolt Kid, it's a wonderfully nostalgic look back at being a kid in
the Mid West in the 50s. I loved it.
--
"For violence and hurt tangle every man in their toils,
and for the most part fall on the head of him from whom
they had their rise; nor is it easy for one who by his
act breaks the common pact of peace to lead a calm
and quiet life."
Lucretius on the Nature of Things.
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