One of the
unique aspects of the U.S. and its Armed Forces is the relationship.
Historically, the American military has been a reflection of the society, with
a small professional corps and the number of citizen-soldiers growing or
declining based on need. With the advent
of the cold war we moved from this to a large standing force, ready to defend
the nation and serve as a tool of national power. What we are seeing today is the cost of that construct becoming unsupportable as we are engaged in conflict so complex that the
simple application of military force is ineffective.
As a society,
we have prided ourselves on the fact that an individual with determination, and
talent, can rise from poverty to greatness unconstrained by a social class. Here too the military reflects that
belief. While the majority of Generals
now come from the established academies, just as in society they come from the
Ivy League colleges, there is room for the exceptional to rise up and join
them. We pride ourselves on these “everyman”
success stories, where a young high school graduate joins the service as a
private, seaman, or airman, and rises to the rank of General through hard work
and excellence in all he or she does.
So we come now
to Memorial Day where we remember the sacrifice of those who, in the words of
Abraham Lincoln “gave the last full measure of devotion” in the defense of a
vision founded in the belief that America was special and worth
preserving. Originally known as
Decoration Day, a time to mark the graves of Civil War soldiers, sailors and
marines it has evolved, just as the nation has.
It was fixed as the last Monday in May by the Congress in 1968 in the
Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and became a federal holiday.
It seems
fitting on this day to reflect on the words of President Lincoln; I believe as
true now as when he first spoke them.
“But, in a larger sense,
we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far
above our poor power to add or detract. 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 dedicated here to the unfinished work which
they who fought here have thus far so 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 increased devotion to that cause for which they here 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 that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.”
Our young men and woman
are still there as the human capital of this nation, we send them to distant
lands to fulfill the promises of our government and if necessary to offer as
payment of that promise their lives. It
is up to us, the living, to remember those sacrifices and hold our leaders and
ourselves accountable for them.
In
his speech to the Sorbonne in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt spoke of “Citizenship in
a Republic.” From that speech comes a
favored quote that talks of the man in the arena who strives valiantly, who may
come up short, but in the end knows either great triumph or if he fails, he
fails while daring greatly. What is not
often cited is, I believe, even more important.
“But if a man’s
efficiency is not guided and regulated by a moral sense, then the more efficient
he is the worse he is, the more dangerous to the body politic. Courage,
intellect, all the masterful qualities, serve but to make a man more evil if
they are merely used for that man’s own advancement, with brutal indifference
to the rights of others.”
Those men and women
who have sacrificed themselves so others may survive; or who have gone where
this nation has sent them and done all it has asked of them have given this
nation its future. It is up to us to
remember them and strive to repay the debt.
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