The Memorial Day

All true, but remember, with the unknown cost is also the unknown payback ... We will never know how many lives will have been saved, and how many people will live in freedom because of it.

 

From the beginning of time it's always been true that the ones who have the brightest future and the most to look forward to are the ones we ask to go into harms way to defend the rest of us. I, for one, am eternally thankful that so many are willing to answer the call.

 

Dude, you just really don't understand, and you're insulting the military with this stupidity.

How many missionaries have died in the "spring of their life," doing God's work? How many more people could they have witnessed to, if not cut down while standing firm for their faith? What great discoveries or advances in the understanding of the Christian faith could they have made? How many of them will never enjoy the stages of life that many of us have gone through, or the joys of a long life?

Or were they proud to have died defending their belief that Jesus is our savior?

I really don't know how to get across to you the absurdity, the sheer unintelligence of what you have posted. Until you have stood firm, shoulder to shoulder with a fellow missionary, in the face of those that would kill you for merely believing differently, you may never understand.

I've spent the last 6 months going to sleep each night surrounded by over 1,200 Iraqis. And each night, I go to sleep with no fear of death, because I know exactly where I'm going when God decides it's time for me to come Home.

I've used the time to speak to my fellow co-workers and the Iraqis, and explain to them why death holds no power over me. I've used the time to speak with Iraqis. I've used the time to make this a better place than when I first got here. I've used the time to let the Iraqis know that Americans do care about them, and want to help them.

And when I leave, or when I die, whichever happens first, I will do so knowing that I've done the best I'm capable of, to make the people and country around me something better, something more, than when I first got here, and I only pray that I'll hear the words that mean more than anything else: "Well done, good and faithful servant."

THIS is what Memorial Day means. Not a testament to what was lost, but a testament to what has been gained. To what the sacrifice of all those men and women over all these years has meant to so many others, including yourself.

Your post demeans those sacrifices, and implies that what they did was worthless.

And until you get that [personal attack deleted], this more-than-20 year veteran asks that you please just shut up.


John 15:13 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

 

THANK YOU!!!

 

Don, you totally missed his point. Personal insults like "stupid" and "thick skull" are not allowed either. You need a major attitude adjustment. Also, telling him to shut up is way out of line. Freedom of speech is one of the freedoms the soldiers die for, so you have no right to try to censor that. He is exercising that freedom that was bought at a high price, and you are denigrating those who paid the ultimate price to secure that freedom by your own words.

 

Go Don. At least Don has literally fought for free speech rights instead of paying lip service to it.

 

I expected you would like personal attacks, and here you go not only defending them but making more. Don said he is a veteran. So am I. So what? Do you expect people to not exercise their rights? I respect Don's service to the nation. I too was proud to serve. The difference is, I believe freedom of expression, and dissent, is a core value of a democratic republic.

So you can take your "lip service" comment and put it where it belongs. Did YOU serve in the military Sag?

Personally, I find it offensive that the usual cast of characters will take a thread to honor our fallen heroes, and turn it into yet another vitriolic attack opportunity.

 

Then please, by all means, explain it. Because what I read was a plea to remember those who have died for an unjust cause; and that demeans their deaths, instead of memorializing what their sacrifices have achieved.

 

Folks, I've seen Crab's posts in other forums and threads, and for me, that prior knowledge colored what Crab wrote. I may have reacted too angrily; but I'm not prepared at this time to apologize or ask forgiveness for it.

I think Larry's and GuitarPreacher's posts say it best. Please read those.

 

Of course not.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18

 

Yes Don, my comments too are based not soley on what's posted in this thread. Stand your ground. When you state the truth you will be accused of being un-Christian, etc. It comes with the territory.

 

Well at least you admit that you poisoned a thread to honor our fallen heroes based upon your differing politics with the opening poster. Sad and disgusting, but at least you admit it. You guys cannot start any fresh conversation without injecting ad hominems and hatred into it, or so it would seem. Gotta love those Christian and "conservative" values. :laugh:

 

I'll not cast my pearls any longer. Have fun!!

 

(shakes head sadly)

Our own individual personal beliefs prevent us from understanding what each other is writing. If you couldn't figure it out from what I wrote, then maybe this will help you understand:

I attended my father's funeral in uniform. He only spent 8 years on active duty, but spent around five years in the National Guard before he died. I had joined the National Guard, and had only been in the military for a few months. Wearing the service dress uniform was still new to me, and attending my first military funeral, much less my own father's...well, it was an emotional event.

I started out the event thinking about all the lost time, things we'd never said to each other, things we'd never done together. But when I arrived at the funeral home, I saw something I didn't expect. There was practically no parking, and if we hadn't been in the funeral home vehicles, we'd probably have had to walk a couple of blocks.

After the service, we went to the gravesite; and there was when it really struck me. There were hundreds of people. To my personal knowledge, my father only spoke of a handful of people that he referred to as friends; so someone had to tell me that these were co-workers, both past and present. They weren't there to mourn what he might have accomplished ten years later; they were there to pay respect to someone that had made an impact on them during his life. They were there to recognize his sacrifices that had made things better for someone else.

The man who had the trumpet to play taps was so nervous, he couldn't drink enough water. He said he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to play it properly, wouldn't do it justice. He was afraid that his poor performance would diminish the memory of someone who had sacrificed for others. He did great.

My father didn't volunteer to die while in battle. But if the need had arisen, if it had meant his sacrifice in order to make things better for someone else...well, that's why he volunteered.

This is what Memorial Day means to me. Not a day to mourn what might have been, but to honor what was done.

Remember and pray for our missionaries today, both those that have died while "in the line of duty," and those that are still out on the front lines. That includes Crab. They, too, didn't volunteer to die; they volunteered to do something to make things better for others.

Magnetic Poles may think I have a problem with pride at the moment; he might be right. I have a problem with anyone that I perceive demeaning my fellow warriors, especially the ones that volunteer to go "outside the wire," so that they're putting their lives on the line, volunteering to make the ultimate sacrifice, so that some young Iraqi child doesn't have to grow up in fear. Knowing full well they might not live to see whether that sacrifice is worthwhile or not, they go anyway. They do it because it's the right thing to do, to try to make sure that the kids don't grow up worrying about whether the police will come for them in the middle of the night, or if the terrorists will kill them simply for working with the Americans. They do it for an ideal, that everyone deserves the right to live without fear, and they do it without knowing if their sacrifice was enough; but they do it anyway.

Pride? Maybe.

We have a saying around here: "What have you done for the Iraqi people today?" It's meant to remind each and every one of us that what we do here is not for ourselves, but for others.

This is what Memorial Day means to me. What was done for us, by those that came before; and what we are doing for those that come after.