A True Way To Honor The Fallen This Memorial Day!
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” — Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776 [1]
This Memorial Day, the time we set aside to honor those who gave “the last full measure of devotion” [2] to the cause of Freedom, a few thoughts come to mind. Memorial Day is certainly about those who died defending Freedom. Should it not also be a re-commitment for us to actively defend Freedom ourselves? I need not tell most of you that these United States have literally become the “last best hope of earth.” [3] If Freedom in the USA is lost, under fierce attack from within — attacks that have intensified in recent years, there is no country remaining that can defend it.
One casualty in the American battle for Freedom was Abraham Lincoln, brought down by enemies of Freedom shortly after the Civil War. A little over a year before he was assassinated, he gave perhaps the most profound two minutes of political speech in the history of Western Civilization. It is a fitting tribute not just to those on both sides who died at Gettysburg but fits any remembrance of those who have died defending Freedom.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” [4]
This Memorial Day, I can honor those who sacrificed by recommitting myself to fighting tyranny on whatever fronts we are faced with. Those who are the enemies of Freedom must be stopped cold in their tracks. The treasonous Deep State, attacks on the Bill of Rights, the mindless culture slide, the indoctrinations occurring in government schools, the promotion by governments of all sorts of immoralities, the massive printing of fiat currencies, the unthinkable debts, the high taxes, the corporate subsidies, the “tolerate everything” mentality, the war against the family, the hostility-toward-all-things-Christian — the assault on Truth itself — must be stopped. Not slowed — not reduced — stopped. As Ronald Reagan once spoke,
“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.” [5]
Continue the fight that the enemies of Freedom will never leave unfinished.
Honor the Fallen.
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[1] Thomas Paine, The Crisis, December 23, 1976 as read to the Continental Army prior to the decisive crossing of the Delaware and the decisive Battle of Trenton, as archived at: http://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-01.htm.
[2] Abraham Lincoln, Address delivered at the dedication of the Cemetary at Gettysburg, final revision, November 19, 1863 as archived at http://archive.org/stream/gettysburgaddres00linc/gettysburgaddres00linc_djvu.txt.
[3] Abraham Lincoln, December 1, 1862 in his “Annual Message to Congress — Concluding Remarks”, as documented at: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/congress.htm.
[4] Abraham Lincoln, Address delivered at the dedication of the Cemetary at Gettysburg, final revision, November 19, 1863 as archived at http://archive.org/stream/gettysburgaddres00linc/gettysburgaddres00linc_djvu.txt.
[5] Ronald Reagan, A Time for Choosing, October 27, 1964, as archived at: http://reagan2020.us/speeches/A_Time_for_Choosing.asp.
