To All Those Who Died In War: I Want You To Know … I Remember
By
Paul E. Scates
sacrifice – n.; the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something having a more pressing claim
Long ago, in my youth, I read that the dead are comforted when they are remembered by those who yet live. To all of you who died in war, in all our wars, I want you to know…I remember.
You do not know me, most of you. You died, mostly, long before I lived. Then many afterward, in Korea. Or in my war, Viet Nam. A few from that war knew me—Billy Bennett, Bobby McJunkin, Larry Duke…a few more…but far too many. Then in other places, strange places, like Iraq…or Somalia. And other places with strange names we´ve nearly forgotten. And some places we never even knew about.
Most of you were young when you died; you didn´t really know what to expect. And most of what you thought turned out to be wrong. But not all of you were young; I´ve often thought that you who were ‘older´—late twenties or thirties, or even forties—were somehow braver to go, for you had no youthful illusions. But you went anyway. As those who have never fought can´t know, age doesn´t matter; you´re never older than seconds before you die.
Recently, you have been joined by some new warriors. As you now know, they died in Afghanistan, a place most of us couldn´t have found on a map until a few months ago. They will, no doubt, explain to you what this war is about, and who we´re fighting. They are missed terribly, like all of you are missed.
I´ve tried many times to write this to you. But you know that. You´ve seen my tears and heard my cries. Up to now I didn´t know what to say. Now I do.
No, this isn´t a Clinton-like apology, full of smarmy sentiment, shallow and meaningless, meant to assuage a guilty conscience. I was one like you, and but for the grace of G-d, I´d have been in the fight with you and, maybe, with you even now. But like others who were spared, I was close enough to see what you endured, what you had to do. And that you did it. Oh, not like the movies, willingly, recklessly giving up your life. You wanted to live. But you risked and lost your life anyway. No self-serving apology can ever relieve us of our guilt; no amount of ‘I´m sorry´s´ can give you back the lives you sacrificed. I won´t dishonor you further by such empty sentiment.
I´m writing to tell you that we´ve failed you. The sacrifices you made, we wasted. So little freedom anywhere in the world, at any time in the world, yet because of you we had freedom and prosperity such as never before seen…and we´ve thrown it away. I am full of shame and disgust that we have so dishonored and trivialized what was, to you, everything you had.
We got complacent, lazy. We became too concerned with ourselves, thinking too much of ourselves. We forgot that a nation, too, must be nurtured and protected, as you protected us. We forgot that freedom isn´t free, that it requires work…work many are no longer willing to do.
We´ve had it too easy, and we´ve grown too soft and distracted. We let people teach our children in universities who, all of them together, aren´t worth even one of your lives. They despise this country for which you died, and help to dismantle it from within. We let people run the country, those in Congress and the White House, whom you would quickly recognize as phonies and pompous jackasses, dishonest, greedy, full of themselves…and of lies.
We´ve outlawed G-d from public places—schools, the courthouses, political gatherings, football games. That is, until something like Sept. 11 happens, when we get scared. Then it´s OK. For a little while. That time has now passed; G-d´s no longer welcome in this nation. In fact, some say it´s because of G-d that Sept. 11 happened. That´s something else: truth is no longer valued in this nation you died for. They call it ‘spin,´ but it´s what you know as ‘lying;´ they say it´s acceptable because there really isn´ t any one truth. They say that every people, every culture have their own truth, and they´re not necessarily the same. So everybody´s truth is equal. Men have one; women have another; homosexuals have another.
Oh, yeah, homosexuals. They´re now one of the most powerful political groups in the country. No, they´re still only about 2% of the population, but they´re in newsrooms and the entertainment industry far beyond that proportion. But they´re powerful because of all the people who support them. Liberals, I guess you´d call them; those who pretty much don´t believe in anyone else´s standards but their own…and they don´t have any. So there are homosexual TV shows now, and magazines, and clubs. Some corporations and even cities give homosexual partners the same benefits as wives or husbands. Congress wants to make special laws for them.
The lives you lost were everything you had, I know that. But even that…life itself… isn´t valued today like it was. If a woman gets pregnant and doesn´ t want her child, she simply has it killed. The Supreme Court says it´s her right. They don´t say anything about her responsibility to not get pregnant if she doesn´t want a baby. And some people argue that we should help the old and the sick commit suicide, because their ‘quality of life´ has suffered. Yeah, I know; once you´re dead, there is no quality of life, is there?
But there´s no sense in giving you more gory details. The point is, we´ve failed you; we´ve mindlessly given up the freedoms you fought and died for. We´re quickly becoming like the nations you fought against—like Germany in 1917, and 1941; like North Korea, and the Soviet Union. By the way, the USSR doesn´t exist anymore, thanks partly to your commitment and sacrifice. Sadly, though, we´re growing more like them every day.
As I said, this isn´t an apology, for no apology would cover what we´ve done. I just want you to know; you, of all people, deserve at least to know what´s become of the nation for which you gave everything you had. Some of us haven´t given up, and we´ll keep trying, for we´ll never accept the alternative. But our enemies aren´t so clearly defined now, and we have to use words and reason instead of bullets and bombs. And many people just don ´t get it. They´re too busy…or too lazy…or just too selfish.
But we´ll keep trying. You preserved with your blood our liberties, our republic, our idea of the rule of law, and some of us believe those are still worth dying for. But the battle today doesn´t require our deaths; it requires our lives…so that´s what we´ll give. Because one day I´ll stand before some of you, and I´m not going to hang my head in shame because I didn´t give my all to preserve my nation…just as you did. So, as bad as the news is, I guess that´s what I really wanted to say: we won´t quit, either. There are still some of us who will keep fighting, in whatever way we must, to maintain the republic, to keep this nation free.
That´s what I wanted you to know. G-d´s rest to you, American warriors; be comforted in the knowledge that others have taken up your struggle. And in the fact that we still remember you, and what you did. Some of us will always remember, and be forever grateful. Be at peace, my Brothers.
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