I am a lucky man.
No, I didn't win the lottery (precisely), nor has my dream job as a professional mattress tester fallen into my lap.
However, I was born to two parents who are full of common sense, and instilled into all of their children the value of learning (even if it's not in a school), and taught us the rewards of having situational awareness. I was encouraged to try things, test limits, and take things apart (and put them back together).
This was possible, because my parents were born during the baby boom of the 50s, and they grew up in the 60s, when civil freedoms were finally (legally) pushed to the logical conclusions of frameworks laid down in the 1800s. They understood freedoms, and they understood prejudices, and they tried very hard to make sure they led by example, not judging people "by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," as the good Doctor prescribed to the nation.
The baby boom of the 50s was due to the return of the men (and women, but mostly the men) who returned from Europe and the Pacific after World War II. Some of them brought brides they married afield, but many of them came back from their foreign service to girlfriends or fiances or wives; they started families.
But this past Monday, Memorial Day, is not a day to remember those that returned from that war, or any war. It's a day to remember those who have fallen, so that the others have somewhere to return to.
I'm happy I live in a country where I do not have to serve in the military. It's a volunteer militia, and I support them, even when I don't agree with the reason for action, or the deployment destination. It's not my job to decide how to protect the country, but it is still my country.
As short and as rocky of a history as this country has, it's seen a lot of fighting, and a lot of death. But every battle fought for freedom, for ourselves or others, we need to remember the price paid. I think #16 said it best, when he said that "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
However, due to the influences of my parents, I still work towards a day when a military presence will not be required to defend freedoms for all to enjoy.
Until another time,
Salt
P.S. Yes, I am quite pleased with myself that I managed to quote two of my favorite speeches in one post, thanks for asking.
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Well quoted, sir!
ReplyDeleteI have a replica of #16's speech hanging on the wall over my desk.
It's the best example I've seen of something not thought very well of at the time it was written/delivered, yet grew to become a timeless work.
I've always thought that it's a perfect Memorial Day speech. Yes, it's targeted at a specific battleground, and it's framed in Civil War references...but it reflects perfectly on the "price paid."
ReplyDeleteI didn't know it wasn't received well at the time of delivery.
After he finished the speech, he sat down and told one of his aides, "That speech won't scour".
ReplyDeleteApparently that's how farmers of the time described a plow that you couldn't get the caked-on mud to wash off of.
Famous New York Tribune Editor Horace Greeley openly mocked it in an post-speech editorial.
The only person who really seemed to understand the significance of it at the time was Edward Everett, who was the keynote speaker that day. He wrote 16 a letter saying, "I wish I could've come as close to the central theme of why we were there in two hours as you did in two minutes."
Okay... I'll stop now...