ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.
Let us join together in a collection of thoughts, poems, prayer and more in honor of all our fallen on this Memorial Day.
Memorial (Decoration) Day...
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle. On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.
Lest we forget...
The phrase "Lest we forget" is commonly used in war remembrance services and commemorative occasions, and its first usage can be traced to Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional" composed for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
The direct Biblical source for Kipling's poem can be found in Deuteronomy 4:7-9:
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
Both scripture and poem consist of the same theme: If a nation forgets the true source of its success, which is the Lord God of Hosts and His ancient sacrifice of Christ, its military and material possessions will be insufficient in times of war.
In Flanders Fields...
The now famous poem “In Flanders Fields” was written by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD, following the Second Battle of Ypres during World War I. The death of McCrae's friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer, who was killed in the battle, was the inspiration for this poem, which was written on May 3, 1915, the day after conducting his own friend's funeral.
Remembrance poppies...
Inspired by McCrae's poem, Moina Michael replied with her own in the same year:
"We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies."
Ms. Michael then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. Being the first to wear one, she sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Shortly before Memorial Day 1922, the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their “Buddy” Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans.
National Moment of Remembrance...
The “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000, asking every American at 3pm local time, “to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps'.”
Sigh. We're in a sad societal state that we even have to talk about another one of these, but the school shooting epidemic continues, as does the unfortunate amount of garbage pumped out by a biased mass media.
Our heads were collectively filled with hows and whys, as our state and federal officials began piecing the deranged details together early Friday. It was welcoming to hear calls for an open forum towards feasible deterrents and common sense measures addressing this epidemic, but we've come to expect for reasons all too familiar by now that such prescriptions have become an unfortunate minefield among the polity if they don't include assaults on liberty through weapon bans that only affect the law-abiding.
Besides the hysterics of the First turned against the Second or the exhaustive and endless pro/con debates moderated among the punditry, there are some who would genuinely like to identify the causes of such an epidemic and tackle them head on. However, we must first overcome a large segment of society in denial of such ailments...
RedState: Talking to Fox News host Chris Wallace, North said the problem isn’t guns and the solution isn’t gun control:
“We’re trying like the dickens to treat the symptoms without treating the disease.”
North is right about that.
The media humiliated itself over the past year, hysterically yelling about “assault rifles.” All the while, there was no such thing. Television’s talking heads were illustrating their ignorance of rifles, choosing to respond emotionally to spooky-shaped plastic firearms as if they possessed a quality of murder which others did not. ...
But could the media be even more wrong? Could the problem not be guns at all?
North thinks so:
“The disease in this case isn’t the Second Amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence.”
But what about something else other than moral decay? Many of the shooters share something else:
“They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male. … Many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten.”
Ritalin, quite simply, is speed. Pure speed. The very thing people would tell their children to never do, in some cases, they’re forcing them to do. From a very early age. There have yet to be enough studies over enough time to scientifically determine what speed — not to mention SSRI’s, a constant among mass shooters — does to the brains of human beings raised on it.
It isn’t a preposterous notion that giving children chemicals that affect their brain or function might, over time, result in behavioral changes. That, after all, is the entire purpose of the drugs. ...
Here’s psychiatrist Peter Breggin on the drugs which have infiltrated the bodies and minds of young Americans. If you have further interest in the subject, enjoy more of his thoughts courtesy of the worldwide web:
Another element should also be explored alongside the cultural and medical, and that's the moral (and dare I mention this in a spiritual light, because the darkness isn't working, folks)...
TheResurgent: We need to be teaching our children how to handle disappointment.
We need to be instilling grace, humility, caring, and a reverent fear of God in our kids.
To be fair, I don’t know the family background of the Santa Fe shooter, yet. I don’t know how he was raised, and the truth is, sometimes parents can do everything exactly right, but their child still strays.
That being said, it is too easy for the world to get settled into the spirit of impressionable youth, and lead them in the exact wrong direction.
Something got to this young man.
What we’re hearing now is that when he opened fire in an art class, killing 9 other students and 1 teacher, he had targets in mind.
In particular, he sought out those he “didn’t like.”
One mother is saying the 17-year old assassin targeted her daughter, Shana Fisher, because she had repeatedly turned down his advances.
Rejection and disappointment crested somewhere between mind alteration and cultural rot fomenting into a swift, violent reaction of immature, irresponsible youth...yet far too many continue to focus on a tool while ignoring the mind behind it. We must move beyond this endlessly insane cycle if we ever seek to reduce (or God willing, end) this carnage.
Almost fell over when I read this in the NYTimes, but even they must admit what a lousy deal this emphatically was...
Of all the arguments for the Trump administration to honor the nuclear deal with Iran, none was more risible than the claim that we gave our word as a country to keep it.
“Our”?
The Obama administration refused to submit the deal to Congress as a treaty, knowing it would never get two-thirds of the Senate to go along. Just 21 percent of Americans approved of the deal at the time it went through, against 49 percent who did not, according to a Pew poll. The agreement “passed” on the strength of a 42-vote Democratic filibuster, against bipartisan, majority opposition.
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (J.C.P.O.A.) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and it is not a signed document,” Julia Frifield, then the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, wrote then-Representative Mike Pompeo in November 2015, referring to the deal by its formal name. It’s questionable whether the deal has any legal force at all.
Build on political sand; get washed away by the next electoral wave. Such was the fate of the ill-judged and ill-founded J.C.P.O.A., which Donald Trump killed on Tuesday by refusing to again waive sanctions on the Islamic Republic. He was absolutely right to do so...
Skipping past the apologists' nuttery, which this writer also dismisses (and I encourage you to go back and read), here's the crux...
The goal is to put Iran’s rulers to a fundamental choice. They can opt to have a functioning economy, free of sanctions and open to investment, at the price of permanently, verifiably and irreversibly forgoing a nuclear option and abandoning their support for terrorists. Or they can pursue their nuclear ambitions at the cost of economic ruin and possible war. But they are no longer entitled to Barack Obama’s sweetheart deal of getting sanctions lifted first, retaining their nuclear options for later, and sponsoring terrorism throughout. Trump’s courageous decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal will clarify the stakes for Tehran. Now we’ll see whether the administration is capable of following through.
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Flanders Fields...
