Guilt and Shame

The usual hubbub marking the Seasonal Opening for DL/LL Enterprises Party Mountain Facilities greets you as you arrive. Names are checked against lists, bracelets and keycards are issued as luggage is loaded onto trucks to proceed you to your accommodations in the mountain.

However, this all seems to be taking place under a bit of a subdued atmosphere. The non-cybernetic and/or robotic members of the staff, whom are over seeing this ordered chaos, seem uncharacteristically quiet and  in a hurry to get you all up to the conference room for the issues presentation.

A few over heard snatches of conversation you come away with, from between staff and key patrons, give you the sense that Lethal might be off, as in not his normal, happy, always ready to host a party for you, self. You know that Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day are two days that are normally hard for and on Lethal but you sense somehow its worse than normal for him this year.

The somber expression on his face as you arrive, the fact he’s not conversing with those in the Patron’s area down front, coupled with the apparent lack of any sighting of his normally close to (if not outright in) hand coffee mug, all seem to confirm this impression for you.

As you ruminate on the meaning of and/or reason behind this, your attention is jogged by several taps on the mic in front of him.

Good Morning, and for those of you who are US citizens, welcome to DL/LL Enterprises Memorial Day 2017 Issue.

Ebenezer Scrooge was visited three times in one Christmas Eve night by ghosts. I shall be visited three times in my dreams also this weekend, abet once per night each night of the three day weekend. Ghost of friends lost, fallen team mates, and finally those whom my orders directly cause to lose their lives, all in combat, all in service to their country. While this is nothing new for me, and has gone on for years, this year will be worse.  See this year I finally understand the questions they all attempt to ask me every year.

“We willingly and without reservation pledged our lives, fortunes and sacred honor in support for defense of and out of love for our country. We placed our trust in Divine Providence, never running from the danger or evil, but rather towards it every time America was threatened. Without hesitation or regret we have fulfilled this pledge. So why does America dishonor us, our memories and our legacy by doing what they are to each other, themselves and to the country?”

I will have but two thoughts for them in response-

Guilt and Shame.

The ever present guilt a survivor bears through out the rest of his life when he comes back and his buddies do not. Guilt that I got to get on with my life and that getting on was not finding a way to champion their sacrifices, not finding a way to give meaning to what they died for.

Shame for being unable to look them in the eye and say we, as a people, and a nation honor your sacrifice on our behalf. We are taking your example to heart and making America a better place, a bastion of the ideals of our Forefathers, the ideal for which you fought and died so bravely.

Guilt and Shame.

How many of you would be willing to make such a pledge today? How many of you are willing to stand for a belief in Divine Providence? Why have your leaders relegated a belief in a divine God to the outskirts of the Capitol and to the deserted corners of our nation? If our forefathers believed in Divine Providence, why do your schools ban any expression of belief in God from the classrooms?

My only response, Guilt and Shame.

Currently, when a witness takes the oath in court, he is asked, “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” What happened to “so help me God”? Has America reached the point where it’s okay to worship celebrities, athletes and movie stars, but it’s not okay to worship God?

My only response, Guilt and Shame.

Why are black children taught racist values, hatred, violence, that it’s ok to prey on other people, including other blacks. Being taught values like this:

Guilt and Shame.

Why are America’s sovereign borders unsecured and little more than a revolving door to any illegal alien or terrorist with a mind to ignore American laws and enter at their own will?

Guilt and Shame.

Why are we more concerned with Transgendered bathrooms in schools than what is and isn’t being taught, the non American values and liberal brain washing that is blatantly occurring, the fact that schools think they are a government and entity to themselves that does not have to take direction from nor answer to anyone, least of all the parents of their students?

Guilt and Shame.

Why are you burdening the tax roles by rewarding those illegal aliens with welfare payments to help facilitate their staying illegally here? Why are you burdening American tax payers, corporations and the economy with what is in essence international welfare payments to countries who oppose the US in the UN and/or who house, overtly or covertly support or hinder the war on terrorism in which many of those you supposedly honor on Memorial Day have lost their lives?

Guilt and Shame.

In short, why are Americans turning their back on everything we whom you claim to honor on Memorial Day stood and died for? Why are your metaphorically spitting on our memories and legacy through your indifference and inactivity?

Guilt and Shame.

Now that I finally understand their question that is all I have to offer by way of an answer is-

Guilt and Shame.

Such a response, much to my undying guilt and shame, I find totally inadequate to the questions.  It is my hope that you too will find them inadequate

This concludes my Annual Memorial Day Address, I thank you for your time and kind attention.

(Impish- Please fly that applauding jerk home right now and drop him off- from 5,000 feet up! )

It is my hope that you will all at some point this weekend take a moment, I suggest the National Minute of Remembrance, (The National Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans, wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day, to pause in an act of national unity for a duration of one minute. ) to reflect on my thoughts, these words and how you would answer these ghosts were you put to the same question.

Now, before I put any further dampener on your planned weekend of revelry or Impish has to drop anyone else off at home, let’s get this issue started shall we?

LADIES, GENTLEMEN,  VETERANS, TROOPS! Please stand and join me in rendering  honors for the raising of our National Colors and the playing of our National Anthem.

Morning Colors USMC style at Parris Island

At Ease! You may be seated.

Just in case my annual address failed to get the point across to someone.

Angel Flight – Radney Foster

As if that photo essay isn’t a compelling enough reason to stand when the National Anthem is played, let me give you a more personal one-

If Impish, myself or any of our Veteran readers ever catch you sitting much less taking a knee in protest during the playing of the National Anthem you will rue that day for the remainder of your days I promise you!

A little later on I’ll be showing you my personal reason (in addition to John’s outstanding essay) for standing when our National Anthem is played.

Live on PBS From the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol!

Sunday, May 28, from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. ET

The National Memorial Day Concert features uplifting musical performances, documentary footage and dramatic readings that honor the military service of all our men and women in uniform, their families at home and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. One of PBS’ highest-rated programs, the multi-award-winning television event has become an American tradition, featuring a star-studded lineup performing in tribute to all Americans who have sacrificed for our country.

The concert’s mission is to unite the country in remembrance and appreciation of the fallen and to serve those who are grieving. Executive Producer Jerry Colbert says, “We think of the agony of the mother or father who lost a child, the spouses and children left behind, the people who are wounded in body and soul. And we do this memorial service to remember and reach out to them. We must remember their sacrifices and continue the mission set forth by Abraham Lincoln to ‘care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan.’”

Those lines by Eric Bogle come from a song called “Willie McBride” by some and alternatively “The Green Fields of France” by others. We’ll get to the song in a moment, but first let’s take a moment to understand a little about what gave basis to the song in the first place.

Telling the Untold Stories of World War I Soldiers, Sailors and Marines at Suresnes American Cemetery

Tuesday, April 25, 2017 Students from the American School of Paris (link is external) (ASP) clustered around headstones at Suresnes American Cemetery last week with pens and notebooks in hand, forming research questions about the Americans honored there. Three teenage girls sat on the grass near one headstone, working together to think through some of the questions. Amelie, one of the students, asked: “Why did he become a soldier?” “Did he have a diary during the war?” “Why is he buried in France?” But this visit wasn’t just a one-day field trip to the American World War I cemetery outside of Paris, rather it served as the starting point for an entirely new student project.

Gathered with his students on the cemetery grounds that day, their teacher, Thomas Neville, announced the classes’ new assignment—the Monuments Project (link is external). With more than 35,000 Americans buried or memorialized overseas from World War I, there are thousands of untold stories, and the students learned they would be uncovering some of these unknown, personal histories. “This is very valuable because this soldier never lived on to tell his story, and should have the chance to be known, since he did a great service to his country,” said Katie, one of the students, in reflecting after the visit.

Through a connection with an American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) staff member in the Paris area, Neville and ABMC began working through this project idea in the fall of 2016. “Very little is known about a lot of the people buried at Suresnes,” said Neville. “That’s a perfect problem statement to begin with. That’s an authentic experience for the students.” And as the idea evolved, Neville found a trans-Atlantic connection to expand the effort and bring on a partner school that had done a similar project in the past.

Read the rest of the article here

John Mcdermott – Willie Mcbride [aka Green Fields of France]

I believe this sentiment has been uttered by every generation that has fought in a major conflict to the up and coming generation. Yet each time we seem to fail to take heed of these words in honors and in our deeds. Want proof of this?  Just as a Vietnam Vet.

I’m about to be the biggest bastard you’ve ever met and I will make no apology for it. I told you earlier that later on I would show you my additional personal reason for standing every time the National Anthem was played. Well its later and this is why.

Impish and I refer often to the that metaphorical “check” service personnel write. Occasionally it gets cashed for the full measure.  However those funds are not drawn solely from just the life of the fallen hero but from their family as well.

I want you to witness what every service family dreads as they live in substandard housing, often on food stamps because their deployed family member took a severe pay cut and now doesn’t make enough to cover all their expenses while deployed and risking his/her life and the well being of their family.

Dignified transfer: A fallen soldier’s final journey home

When an American soldier dies overseas, they are returned to the U.S. the same way each time. Byron Pitts follows one fallen soldier in his final journey home in what the military calls a “dignified transfer.”

Let us not forget that Humans are not the only heroes in this new modern battlefield.

In The Arms Of An Angel-American Soldiers Tribute

LADIES, GENTLEMEN, VETERANS, TROOPS! I would ask that you again please stand and join me in rendering  honors for the retiring of our National Colors.

THIS IS NOT RIGHT! It was not right back when the VA scandal was made public and its not right now when the problems still exist! These Vet’s are asking for no more than what they were promised when they signed up.

I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here, beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. With words we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept, plighted faith may be broken, and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke: but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.

James A. Garfield-  Speech at Arlington Cemetery, Decoration Day (30 May 1868)

Amazing Grace(Bagpipes) – Taps- 21-Gun Salute