I haven’t posted in a few months. Health issues, especially my worsening eyesight, have sidelined me–and frankly, the relentless domestic political discord and chaotic foreign policy have left me mentally exhausted. I have said my piece in previous posts, and I don’t know that I have anything more to add. But on this day, this day of remembrance, I have chosen to simply re-post my previous Memorial Day comments–as a reminder of why they gave their lives. It bears repeating.

Remembrance is also a reminder. The worst can happen again. In the words of Wendell Phillips, the nineteenth century radical abolitionist and uncompromising champion of democracy and civil rights, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” If you are interested in my thoughts on our contemporary world, read my verse meditation in the tab above “Meditationes Privatae” https://agathopsis.net/contemplations/ It has the Latin title, Adversus Veritatis Contemptores (Against Those Who Despise Truth). I wrote it in November 2020 when denial of the presidential election results began spreading. My feelings haven’t changed. The introduction to my website, Agathopsis, says that this site is dedicated to the search for truth. Sadly, truth has become an obsolete commodity, seldom in demand by the general “consuming” public. The desire now is for whatever nonsense serves to benefit “my team,” whatever fiction gratifies me with what I want to hear, no matter the cost, nor to whom. What a pathetic, unworthy legacy to follow in the footsteps of those we honor today.

Below is my previous summary of why the sacrifice of those we remember today matters, not just to us, the American nation, but to the world, which has for over eighty years looked to America for principled leadership and protection of the rule of law. Where are those values today?

REMEMBER THE FALLEN

Remember why they fell, in what cause: Freedom from political oppression, from religious fanaticism, and from vicious and diabolical prejudice.

In Europe: They fought fascism, and the fascist dictators who were masters of “Big Lies” and deadly actions that turned most of Europe into killing fields for the sacrifice of the innocent to the false idol of the master race and other specious and self-serving myths.

In Asia: They fought to resist the falling dominoes of countries threatened by communist dictatorships and savage coercion into collective action on behalf of the state and the “people.”

In the Middle East: They fought mindless, violent fanaticism that knows no bounds, having defined the will of Providence as its exclusive possession and determined to bring all the world under its rigid theocratic heel.

They fought and died. They held back the tide of evils that continue to threaten us today. Indeed, those evils are gaining strength and spreading their poisonous atmosphere in every direction. The sacrifices of our fallen brothers and sisters in over a century of conflicts cry out to us to keep faith with them. Do not stay silent in the face of evil: lies, deceit, wanton aggression, and lawlessness.

REMEMBER THE FALLEN … AND IN WHAT CAUSE THEY FELL

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IN MEMORIAM (uncles, father-in-law, father, great uncle):

George Marrash, US Army, 23rd Inf. Reg., 2nd Inf. Div., WWII, DOW France, 1944

Tony Marrash, US Army, WWII

Sam Sadie, US Marine Corps, WWII

Louis Gramesty, US Army, 8th Air Force, WWII

Elias T. Marrash, Auto-Ordnance Co., Thompson Submachine Guns, WWII

Elias Tamey, US Army, WWII