Memorial Day 2020 Reflection

[P.T. McCain]

Many cook outs on Memorial Day, perhaps far fewer this year, but I thought this was amusing, which reminds me...I have to get dinner going. My wife and I have for years agreed to the arrangement whereby she makes breakfast, I make supper.

https://babylonbee.com/news/historian-women-invented-grilling-to-trick-men-into-cooking?utm_content=buffer12545&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[peter_speckhard]

Pastor Peter:
Of course, NOBODY, in ANY forum, no matter how modest, has ever objected his or anyone's else's mere assertion that "there are other ways to serve." In other words, he actually tilts at his own straw men as though they are real, which would be fine as a private hobby if he didn't identify "some others in this forum" as these straw men.
Me:
I stand in awe at your grasp of what I have seen and heard and experienced over the years. How do you do that?

Peter:
It is good for those who are constantly engaged with Charles to bear in mind. Just leave it. He really can't help himself and really doesn't understand the objection. Let him alone.
Me:
I have at times said here, if you don’t like what I say, just ignore it. But for some people, that seems hard to do.

I’ve been in this forum a long time, and never have “some in this modest forum” objected to the idea that there are other ways to serve. Many, many, across the years and from a variety of synods and denominations have objected to your obnoxiousness. Which I’m just now catching on is something you actually can’t help because you don’t see it. Hence my suggestion.

If you have experience outside this forum with people objecting to your assertion that there are other ways to serve, take it over there, or at least do t ascribe that view to anyone in this forum.

[James J Eivan]

And someday, probably not on memorial day weekend, we will learn that one can serve one’s country and perhaps even have to make that “ultimate sacrifice” without putting on a uniform and picking up a weapon.

Of course. Last night at the Memorial Day Concert, the MC's paid tribute to the health care providers, grocery workers, postal workers, et. al. It is only right.

Peace, JOHN (wore the uniform but didn't have a weapon  )

This whole pandemic reveals how interdependent are ... I VERY rarely enter a bar ... but the loss of the tax revenue from these establishments may well affect my life. I rarely darken the doors of a restaurant or other eating establishment, but the recent disruption of that industry is far reaching as wel!.

As in a church, any time one attempts to specifically acknowledge the efforts required for an event, some are overlooked.  This afternoon I visited with my neighbor ... the perils of long haul truckers was discussed ... highway rest areas were closed ... for understandable reasons ... but truckers now had no place to relieve themselves .. eating establishments understandably closed ... where do the truckers eat?

Local delivery personal continued working ... as did many others ...they all deserve recognition ... and surely others are still being overlooked.

[P.T. McCain]

This whole pandemic reveals how interdependent we are

Indeed, this has been an aspect of this that has really hit me.

Gas prices are so low! But...I have not filled up my truck in eight weeks. What impact does that have on the gas station and everything associated with it? And on and on and on the list goes. The dominoes are falling down and everyone is getting hit (to mix a metaphor).

Hospitals, we were told, were going to be overwhelmed so we all had to stay away ... now we are reading about massive layoffs at our hospitals!

Historians are going to be studying and writing about this event for a very long time.

[Charles Austin]

Peter writes:
OK, Peter. I won’t  ascribe that to anyone in this forum.
So maybe my comments might simply remind all of us, in whatever forums we set our feet, to say at certain times, “Hooray for those in military service, who risk their lives and die for us!”
And then to say, “Hooray for teachers, or social workers, or nurses, or Peace Corps volunteers, or pro bono lawyers, or community organizers, or artists who - at times - also risk much, and may suffer for their service.”
We’re gonna need a few more songs, but we can write them.

[D. Engebretson]

A heartfelt YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omd9_FJnerY . The music is John Williams' "Hymn to the Fallen" from Saving Private Ryan. The pictures are U. S. military cemeteries around the world with the number intered.


Another YouTube video based on the British patriotic hymn "I Vow to Thee My Country" and adapted for the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrljyWm8D08

Yes, thank you, Dan, for posting this.  What a powerful and sobering reminder of the high cost of war and of the freedom we fight to protect.  I honestly had no idea that we had so many cemeteries throughout Europe.  Over 405,000 American servicemen and women died in WWII.  We often forget the many who died in the effort to stop the combined forces of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.  Tragically 3 million German military died in that war, and well over 2 million military personnel also died from Japan.  The total cost in human life from this most deadly of wars in modern history tops out at 75 to 80 million people, which accounted for 3% of the world's population in 1940, or to put that in different perspective, around 25% of the current population of the US.  It is hard to really conceive of such massive suffering and death out of one war.  May God preserve us from this in future years.

[Eileen Smith]

A heartfelt YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omd9_FJnerY . The music is John Williams' "Hymn to the Fallen" from Saving Private Ryan. The pictures are U. S. military cemeteries around the world with the number intered.


Another YouTube video based on the British patriotic hymn "I Vow to Thee My Country" and adapted for the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrljyWm8D08

May I add to this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jccNoxn1HoU&fbclid=IwAR1Tew41Y88e8xKGT4TwYpcFDecIIXhWOv4Uwm9A-ZIUjhpE-JlGSqSDnxU

[Eileen Smith]

I, too, watched the concert from Washington as Joe and I did every year.  It was difficult without Joe next to me.  Much like the Hannah family we would stand to sing the National Anthem and stood for Taps.  We enjoyed the Armed Services medley and sang along - standing, of course, for the Marines. 

Of the members of my family who served in the military "only" one was killed in Vietnam - one too many.  I thought it appropriate, given the current circumstances, to honor the front line people this year and it was done tastefully and without great fanfare.  But I hope we return to the nature of the day:  honoring those who died in service to our country. 

Perhaps we do need more songs to be composed to recognize the many ways people have served.  My husband rarely talked of his service and my dad never talked of his service in the Battles of Tarawa and Saipan.  Men and women who join the military do deserve a special observance be it on Veterans Day or a day such as this, Memorial Day. 

No one is excluded yet not everyone is included.  And, quite honestly, that is okay.  We are all called to serve God's children in some way yet not all in the same way.  When I die bishops most likely will not come to the funeral as they would for a deceased pastor.  It doesn't make me less than, simply different than.  Just as military honors are given to those service men and women    does not make them better than, simply different than.   

 

[Dave Benke]

A heartfelt YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omd9_FJnerY . The music is John Williams' "Hymn to the Fallen" from Saving Private Ryan. The pictures are U. S. military cemeteries around the world with the number intered.


Another YouTube video based on the British patriotic hymn "I Vow to Thee My Country" and adapted for the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrljyWm8D08

May I add to this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jccNoxn1HoU&fbclid=IwAR1Tew41Y88e8xKGT4TwYpcFDecIIXhWOv4Uwm9A-ZIUjhpE-JlGSqSDnxU

Thanks for this, Eileen, and for your reflection.  I know the West Point Band and Glee Club from being with them at the USMA, and this rendition is tops.  My siblings and I played and sang "In the Mansions of the Lord" at the funeral service for my brother's father-in-law, who served in the 75th Army Rangers during WWII.  On the day Paris was re-taken, his task as a Ranger was to ascend the Eiffel Tower and remove from it the last German snipers. He then returned home and became a teacher of music and musical instruments in the public school system.  Rest in Peace.

Dave Benke