Thine Eyes have seen the glory

[Indian Charlie]

I would also like to take this opportunity to honor the fallen men of our past and current wars as well as in the future war with Iran.

[ALostTexan]

Oh, you mean that tomorrow isn't about cars being on sale and drinking beer all day?

Makes me totally sick about how Memorial Day has lost it's meaning with so many people across the country. Memorial Day is about remembering and honoring those who have given their lives for this country. Glad to see that at least a few people still understand that...

ALostTexan

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

I would also like to take this opportunity to honor the fallen men of our past and current wars as well as in the future war with Iran.

Absolutely!

A special thank you to our millitary heros serving in Iraq and abroad (even including those making pace figures in Belgium) and a special thank you to all vets as well.

But, besides our military heros past and present....on this Memorial day, as we remember the fallen, let us honor the gigantic boar, that was killed in such dishonorable fashion, by that fat kid last week.

While I've never personally conversed with that giant hog, I steadfastly maintain that I've seen her everytime I've made a late night shopping trip to a Wal Mart.

She certainly did not deserve to be gunned down by an 11-year-old lardass with a .50 caliber cannon that had to cost about 1K. Let alone be poisoned, and shot a dozen times while tracked down over miles...before finally meeting her death excution style.

It would be one thing if the porky little kid and his obese father were in need of food---but that clearly wasn't the case at all.

[paisjpq]

OMG drugS that's some hall of fame work right there!

[TheSpyder]

Excellent post Skippy.

Although I've heard it 100 times seeing the words on a day like today was a great tribute.

Our generation, even with Iraq, doesn't fully realize that we're playing for keeps and those that lived during WW1 and WW2 know just how fragile the fight for freedom really is.

Lets hope we all appreciate what freedom means and the price that some have paid in the past, today, and in the future.

God Bless America

[Kasept]

Finch's famed Civil War poem that helped drive Decoration Day into the American consciousness, and its' recognition as a National holiday. First designated in NY in 1873, and nationally in 1887...

The Blue And The Gray
Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907)


By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray
These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor,
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain,
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment -day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,
In the storm of the years that are fading
No braver battle was won:
Under the sod adn the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

[TheSpyder]

My mother was English and lived in London during WW2. A young 14 year old girl living on the west side of London, her apartment building was bombed by the very last V2 bomb that the Germans ever dropped in London. If you’re not familiar, these were almost small airplane looking bombs that could be heard from miles away as they descended on their targets and had massive destruction ability.
There was no time to escape and her mother, father, and only brother were killed by this bomb as well as many others. Miraculously, my mother somehow lived being pulled out of the rubble some five days later. Her survival brought her to live with an Uncle in Cleveland, Ohio. A few months later while learning to ice skate she fell down and a young man helped her up. That man was my father. That is why I exist, but there is more.
During a seminar I attended in Cambridge, England when I was in my 40’s I was lucky enough to go to Duxford Air Base a few miles away which is one of the most fascinating military museums you will ever see. It was then I learned that the American air fight during WW2 against the Germans was stationed there. Adjacent to the museum was a US military cemetery. In the usual military way rows and rows of cemetery stones went on as far as the eye could see. It was in that moment that I realized that these brave men in their ultimate sacrifice fought off the Germans attack of England and put a stop to the German invasion. As I stood looking out at the graves I began to weep knowing full well that I was standing there only because they gave their lives for freedom, and ultimately, for my existence.

[Zippy Chippy]

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be deidcated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so far nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-- that from these honored dead we take an increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-- and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

--Abraham Lincoln

Thank you vets and thank you to all the active servicemen around the world. We are humbled and grateful for your sacrifice.

Thanks for all you do.

Here's something that should make you laugh...