A Piece of My Mind

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the day that we remember the millions who have given life, limb and their liberty that we might enjoy the land of the free. Here is one of the finest tributes I’ve seen. Unfortunately, I do not know who wrote it. If you do, please let me know.

“I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at Valley Forge, as he holds his musket in his bloody hands. He stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from months of battle and emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his family surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war. He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on his breath. He looks at us now in anger and disgust and tells us this...

I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illiterate to read it.

I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at home because it rains.

I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business.

I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people.

It’s the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press.

It’s the soldier not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech.

It’s the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate.

It’s the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!”

Perhaps, soldiers who have died or just faded away could be upset with us (and justly so), because of the way we have treated the freedom they sacrificially secured for us, but let us honor them by remembering that: “It is the soldier who has given….”