2007
Soap Box Archives
Memorial
Day
Memorial Day at one time was known as Decoration Day among the
common folks, because it was the day they placed flowers and
decorations on the graves of those who had given their lives
in the service of this nation. It was an act of remembrance,
gratitude and honor.
As this Memorial Day approaches my mind goes back across the
years to 1941. I was five years old, it was a cold December
afternoon in coastal North Carolina and it's funny how little
things stick in your mind after 65 years.
The family was at my grandmother's house on the Carolina Beach
Road and they had made homemade ice cream. I was the only grandchild
at the time and quite the center of attention.
Other than the fact that I wasn't feeling too well, I guess
some childhood malady or other, it was shaping up to be a fine
family day until everybody gathered around my granddaddy's big
floor model radio to listen to Franklin D. Roosevelt announce
that the United States military bases in Hawaii had suffered
a sneak attack by the Japanese.
It
was startling news and the next few weeks were to bring a flurry
of activity, young men enlisting in the military to go off and
fight an enemy in places they'd never heard of until the last
few days.
All they cared about was that America needed them and they were
ready. So an unprepared America went to war on two fronts, with
Germany and Italy in Europe and Japan in the Pacific.
Those first years of World War Two were bloody and heartbreaking
as could be witnessed by the gold stars hanging in the windows
up and down the streets of America.
But even when the war was going badly and the casualty lists
were high, America dug in her heels, said her prayers and listened
to F.D.R. and Gabriel Heatter on the radio, knowing full well
that no swastika or rising sun would ever fly over our beloved
United States of America.
You can't beat a nation that is united and America was united
during the Second World War. Everybody did something for the
war effort. We gathered scrap metal, tin cans, cooking grease
and anything else to help America win.
Nobody talked about defeat, nobody would accept it even as a
possibility.
I remember D-Day. My mother got me out of bed to go to church
to pray for the brave men fighting and dying, storming the beaches
of Normandy. The church was full to overflowing. It was a different
America that fought the
war against fascism, an America that stood shoulder to shoulder
against any enemy that threatened our freedom or security.
On this Memorial Day, as we pay homage to those who preserved
our way of life for over two hundred years, let us remember
that those headstones we put flowers on represent real people,
real lives, real losses.
On this Memorial Day I pay homage and honor to our Veterans,
our active service people and to those who have paid the ultimate
price to keep America free.
Our debt to them is unpayable.
Pray for our troops.
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
May 25, 2007
