Do you remember...? **memorial day**

Saipan? Guadalcanal? Kai Sahn? Those nameless hills in frozen Korea? Or the steaming jungles of Vietnam? The hedgerows of Normandy? The mountains of Afghanistan? The deserts of Iraq?

Have you really left them behind you? Yes?

Those haunted eyes staring off into the distance today tell me otherwise...

Do you remember the sands of Iwo Jima? Betio/Tarawa? The Mekong Delta?

Are they really in the past? Those haunted eyes staring off into yesterday tell me otherwise...

The tears I see in your eyes when forever young faces flash through your memories tell me that all those yesterdays live on in your nightmares... As Taps sound so hauntingly over the green, green grass of home, I see those memories flashing yet again.

I so want to gather you into my arms and tell you that everything will be ok, that no one else will ever have to do what you've done... I want to be able to tell you I understand the pain that makes your heart ache so profoundly...

But I can't... Because even as I write this, someone's child is having to do things that will haunt their dreams for the rest of their lives.

But I can't... Because no one who has never been on a battlefield can ever understand that pain.

I can only be here to listen, to be a strong shoulder to lean on when the memories are too much. I can only say thank you for taking on the pain, so that I don't have to. So that your children won't have to.

Do you remember...?

Watching helplessly from a troopship as innocents so terrified of you that they felt that jumping off a cliff onto surf covered rocks was preferable...

No? Your shouts in the night say otherwise...I stood helplessly at your door listening as you relived that moment over and over again... Helpless each time to stop it.

Innocents that you were helpless to save. Do you remember?


Soldiers aren't robots, or soulless... Though many of you who hate them seem to think that they are... When will you remember that they are our children, our parents, our best friend from school...

Do you remember...? Your best friend Joe? Who joined to see the world? But instead was sent to a mortal version of Hell called War...

What is it good for...?

How about your brother? Remember how proud he looked in his dress blues? Remember how scared he looked as he left? Do you remember...?

Your father...? Your sons/daughters...?

Some day, when we grow up and decide to stop killing each other for meaningless, and ultimately futile, things there will be this...

Someday...

Someday... For the little Jimmy's, and shepherds everywhere.


In your hurry to cast blame towards these young men and women, children really... Save some of the blame casting for that person staring out at you from the mirror... 'Cause you helped put him in that desert... You helped put her onboard that warplane over a mountain in Afghanistan...

You helped by putting our "leaders" in office. Oh, you didn't vote for them? Well then, you didn't work hard enough to get your guy/gal elected... Congratulations... You're a warmonger, too. Savor the flavor.

I helped put them there... ...and I watched as a young man came home last summer from Afghanistan's mountains. He came home to a hero's welcome... Too bad he had to die in order to get one. Does anyone remember that he was a father? A husband? A son? A friend?

I remember. ...and for what it's worth? I thank him, I thank my father, I thank all of you who have served, who will serve, and most especially, those of you who are serving. ...and I pray, that someday that last bullet will fly.

Blowin' in the wind...

When will we, you and I, realize that we can stop these senseless wars?

When will we look back and remember that we stopped it? Or will we look back in horror, and remember that we lost a chance to end it.

Today, take a moment to remember the fallen. The wounded. The scarred.

Last Post

...and remember that we can, if we choose to do the work necessary, stop it. It's our's to do, and God willing, we'll remember that someday.

Age does not weary them nor the years condemn the dead, these things are the lot of those that survive. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember those that died and those that live on.

You will never stop war, it is part of human nature.

Just as sure as a bee will gather pollen, you can be certain that humans will always create conflict.

But yes, lets remember those who have fallen.

Originally posted by Hopechest
You will never stop war, it is part of human nature.

Just as sure as a bee will gather pollen, you can be certain that humans will always create conflict.

But yes, lets remember those who have fallen.

Yes, and the lesson that needs to be learned from history is most often tyrants won't leave by diplomacy and force is necessary.

Ask Nevil Chamberlain.

Yeah I remember while most people will be drinking beer, and eating hog dogs,. and burgers joking, and laughing having a grand old time.

There were those, there are those, drinking sweat, eating dirt, getting shot at, and blown up for not just one day or one war on some no name battle field long forgotten by most though out the centuries of this country.

I haven't forgotten Memorial Day, most people have.

reply to post by seagull


The ugliest truth we face today as Americans. Is the possibility of every sacrifice
made by, every service man since 1775 ending up to be in vain. The U.S. that
they fought and died for, is not the U.S. we see transforming out of Washington
today. They fought and died for you people, to protect the very freedoms Washington is slowly, steadily, eroding away. And it has all been engineered by those who own everything. So if you're all fired up to remember something today ? Remember that.
And if we don't do something about the parasitic psychos in D.C. right now ? Then
we can count on only one thing to remember in the future. They died for us and we let them down.

SnF

Yes, I thank every veteran and service man I run into.

reply to post by seagull


Awesome thread, seagull!

A toast to all those who have sacrificed so that we may pursue happiness!


Happy Memorial Day to all!

My grandfather who was a Korean war vet died 2 weeks ago. Yes, I remember Memorial day. For those who have no one to remember them ..........

*Salute*

I'll never forget.

reply to post by randyvs


Not yet we haven't. There is still an opportunity, if we're willing to make one.

reply to post by seagull


seagull that brought a tear to my eye what a lovely thread and so meaningful to thank you, even coming from the long place of Ulster

reply to post by randyvs

Is the possibility of every sacrifice made by, every service man since 1775 ending up to be in vain.

The vast majority of wars since then have been wars of expansion. Their sacrifices have been to expand the military industrial complex.

This "holiday" was completely manufactured by TPTB to promote their agenda.
Don't be dumb. Do you really think they've been fighting wars for your freedom?

War is unacceptable and anyone who participates is scum. period.
I know you brainwashed conservatives here won't like this, but it's the damned truth.

Soldiers are murderers.

reply to post by Ghost375


Who put them there? Who put the politicians into office who are incapable of finding any other solution to a problem?

Scum? Murderers? Save some of that hate for yourself, sirrah. 'Cause we're all part of the problem. Not just the soldiers.

Originally posted by seagull
reply to post by Ghost375

 

Who put them there? Who put the politicians into office who are incapable of finding any other solution to a problem?

Scum? Murderers? Save some of that hate for yourself, sirrah. 'Cause we're all part of the problem. Not just the soldiers.

No, I refuse to vote because I know all politicians, like willing soldiers, are scum.

unbalances @ times need balanced. considering the fields and the mind states. Some go to protect others as ordered, others however @ times take advantage of the fields blind spots and show their true energy signatures...

reply to post by Ghost375


You're still part of problem, because of your lack of involvement. Do you think that uninvolvement somehow excuses you? Sorry. We're all in this together, and the sooner we realize this, the sooner we can move past it.

my relative said he went to a memorial day thing for vietnam vets, no one was their but protesters taking pictures suspiciously of vets. These people go too far with there extreme views, did they risk life and limb and serve their country or help people try to live free lives? No they're just negative nancies. No offence to people named nancie.

The problem doesnt lie in whether willing soldiers or politicians are bad or good. Its something bigger and from before america even started, its called war, a machine many countries use to get more wealth and power over others because they always ego-centricly think they are the solution to everyone elses problems and tend to manipulate or force their opinions down peoples throats, just look at health care.

reply to post by Ghost375

This "holiday" was completely manufactured by TPTB to promote their agenda. Don't be dumb. Do you really think they've been fighting wars for your freedom?

Manufactured or not, my fellow vets who paid the ultimate price deserve their day to be remembered.

Peace

Originally posted by seagull
reply to post by Ghost375

 

You're still part of problem, because of your lack of involvement. Do you think that uninvolvement somehow excuses you? Sorry. We're all in this together, and the sooner we realize this, the sooner we can move past it.

Just because I don't vote, does not mean I'm not involved.

Do you know what it's like to be a person who doesn't support the troops? Who openly calls them murderers in country full of brainwashed people who support the military?

They are murderers. That's all.
Wars won't end as long as we support those who actually do the killings.
Soldiers will keep doing what they do if you keep saying it's ok!
You're the problem. You support murder. I do all I possibly can to stop it.

Great writing Seagull. Thank you very much for this thread.