Memorial Day

This is the time to recall the radio address Franklin Roosevelt read as he announced the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. His speech was a prayer:

“Almighty God:
our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by thy grace, and for our cause, our sons will triumph . . . And for us at home–fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men over seas–help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.” June 6, 1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Oh that we had national leaders who would lead us in prayer in times like these! Although we now have volunteer forces which includes women--daughters, mothers and wives, if we began such praying before they left home, the very high cost of deaths, injuries and crippled bodies, as well as lives forever changed because of the horrors of war, would not be so very large. All across our home land are the graves and markers of lives lost in the high costs of our wars. Many of them were drafted, but also many chose to go, believing the cause was just and right. Theirs was the ultimate sacrifice, but was not the only horrible cost of war. Families, parents, spouses, children, plus communities and churches have suffered great loss too. Many of our returning heroes suffer all manner of physical and mental injuries that has changed them for ever.
Hidden away in the memories of many of them are such horrible sites, sounds and smells, although suppressed most of the time, still on occasions bring hurt over and over again.

I mean to remind us that our praying must be for protection, of course, but also why they are going to war; and for their emotional and spiritual state as they go. Our new reality is that many are committing suicide both in the battle setting and at home afterwards.

Let us not be so callous as to remember and honor those who lost their lives, for us, our freedoms and causes, but also those who have returned home, sometimes even feeling guilty because they survived in the midst of so many friends who died there on the battle field. Let us truly honor our heroes who have paid the cost of our nation’s wars, both the dead and the living.

Perhaps the greatest dishonor is that we are letting be taken away from us, as a nation, the very freedoms and causes for which they paid such sacrifices. Let us never forget them and honor their memory truly. And the ones who returned home, are they not precious too. Men and women who are still paying a cost for us. I would that you all could visit a Veterans Hospital and see the on-going suffering of many, and determine to live like you honor them. Let us, at home,
still protect what they fought for.