"Memorial Day"

 "Memorial Day"
by Bob Englehart

"My father served in the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. The OSS was the forerunner to the CIA. When I was a kid, I’d ask the inevitable question, “What’d you do in the war, daddy.” He’d say “Dodged bombs in London for three years,” and then he’d change the subject. I didn’t find out about the brutality he witnessed and friends he lost until the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1995. He went into detail, to a point, and then his eyes welled up with tears and he stopped talking. But he was one of the lucky ones. He survived in one piece to play 18 holes of golf at 90 years old and to begin to forget about the war.

As long as there are human beings living on the planet Earth, we’ll have war. So many good people have died in wars designed to save the world from a megalomaniac like Hitler, or for unclear wars like Iraq and Vietnam, or nation building in Afghanistan, or to hold this country together like in the Civil War. Good people die in bad wars too. I know so many veterans, good people, who say that they simply did what their country asked.

Take a moment this weekend and say a thank you to the good people who died so that we may choose whatever we want to do on Memorial Day because in the end, it’s about freedom."

- http://www.cagle.com/2012/05/memorial-day-12/

Share this post