In my memory, Memorial Day was always a nice, warm and sunny day, filled with the sweet effervescence of spring. Everyone in town managed to meander down to Main Street and to secure a poppy for their button hole, to stop and chat with the butcher at the corner market and to pick up a special bouquet of flowers for the cemetery. If you noticed, every single person was walking a little taller and sharing pride, admiration and love for those who had come this way, served their country, and passed into eternity.
The American flag flew at half-staff, put there at dawn’s early light by a special ceremonial squad of the local American Legion Post or the VFW. People stopped at the entrance to the cemetery to share stories about their loved ones, bring each other current on family events, and to pay their respects to God, to Country, and to honored fallen. Patriotism was truly in the air.
We cared about our neighbors, our towns, our schools, and our social mores. In the faces of adversity, we stuck together like glue, and we prevailed. When the chips were down, really down, it didn’t matter what the color of our skin was, what our religious beliefs were, who made what kind of money, or what our individual animosities and prejudices might be; all of that was put aside and we were one giant family, standing united with purpose of liberty and justice for all. Above anything else, we were Americans and we were all damned proud of it.
If you killed someone, you could count on going to the electric chair, firing squad, or hangman’s gallows. If you broke the law, you went to jail. If you didn’t join the branch of the military you preferred, you were likely to become drafted into the army. If you burned the flag, you were a most horrible creature and if you did drugs, not only did you do the time… they also caught and prosecuted the dealer. Everyone graduated from high school; very few did not and, if they didn’t for some reason, they usually ended up in night school until they earned their diploma. Those who graduated certainly knew how to do simple math in their heads and most of them spoke a second language and knew the name of the Vice President of the United States.
Although there were no “pills,” teenage pregnancy was the exception and not the rule. Cancer, albeit most certainly lethal, was almost unheard of. When a national emergency occurred, Congress and the President diligently and proactively dealt with it.
How do things stand in 2008? Suffice it to say that ticking off the comparisons would undoubtedly be an exercise of futility simply because, in 50 short years, all of the good things about America that have been enumerated above have disappeared and most of today’s Americans cannot even conceptualize them. The question, of course, begs itself: “Is change bad?”
In going through the above list, one might well argue a point or two but, in the final analysis I think we have to consider where we now are, what we have become. To be sure, I question whether or not Americans stand proud and tall today, confident in their democracy, confident in their leadership, confident in their future. Several recent studies would suggest that the opposite is firmly true. I fear that we Americans have, in fact, lost our compasses.
We seem to be adrift in an endless sea of international terrorism and political correctness, more afraid of being wrong than of making the decision and more willing to point the finger of blame in another direction than to take responsibility for our own actions. It’s almost as if, when someone mentions the word “Americanism,” we feel obliged to stare at the ground. We accept the premise that our flag should be burned and we halfway think to ourselves that we were to blame for 9-11.
You know, those propositions are not entirely inaccurate. If we are no longer willing to stand up and defend our forefathers whose blood was spilled to protect our right to raise that flag, then maybe it should be burned. And, if we do not have the guts and the courage to fight terrorism in every corner of the land, then we probably did invite the tragedies of 9-11. Furthermore, if we do not have the courage to win the battle, we should not be in it.
Wars are ugly. I hate and despise war. But, I will also tell you that I have a very large pistol and I know very well how to shoot it. If you pop your head in my door in the middle of the night with the intention of doing me harm, I will point the gun to your heart and I will squeeze the trigger and I will not stop shooting until your limp body hits the floor. There will be no, “Let’s go sit in the drawing room and chat about this,” before that decision is made. There will be no intermittent calls to law enforcement to ask, “Is it okay if I pull the trigger again?” There will be no guessing over whether I should use the big gun or the little one; it’ll be the big gun. And, I don’t miss.
In that respect, and in retrospect, Goldwater was right. If we were going to mire ourselves down in Viet Nam, we needed to be ready to use every weapon available to us in order to win; otherwise, we needed to get out, right then and there. As it was, we chose neither path. Instead, we chose to stay another 15 years and we sacrificed many, many more American lives and we walked away as losers in the eyes of the world and losers in our own hearts.
That, I think, was the defining moment where we lost our way.
When it comes to Iraq, on the first go around, total and absolute victory was within our grasp. We had Hussein red-handed with weapons of mass destruction and we had him red-handed invading Kuwait. We had every right to finish off the job, to remove Hussein and to establish an American or NATO or United Nations protectorate. If we had done that, we would not be in Iraq today and I don’t think 9-11 would have happened, either.
On the second invasion, our intelligence was telling us that Hussein had replenished his stockpiles and his regime was killing off his enemies by the thousands. So, what did we do? We warned him, we warned him, we warned him…. For over a year, we warned him. Then, we invaded and there were no weapons of mass destruction. I believe that they are there, buried in the Iraqi or Syrian sands. We certainly must look like schmucks to the rest of the world. And, we are still there, sending our troops into daily battle with restrictions on how to fight while revealing ourselves as being unwilling to fight to win the war.
On that basis, I must agree that we don’t belong in Iraq.
And on that basis, I would suggest to you that we should dismantle our armed forces and rid ourselves of the horrible weapons we possess, simply because we are not willing to use them to win a war and they might fall into the wrong hands. Yes, we should lower the American flag and we should burn it. If we are not willing to kick ass in war, then we need to learn how to suck it up really well because we cannot, and never will, win.
I also think we owe the Hitler Germans a big apology, because the years have now proven that the holocaust never occurred.
So long, Memorial Day; we don’t need you around anymore. You are underfoot, in the way, and politically incorrect.
That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.
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