A friend said something wise today , in lieu of Memorial day

" The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?"

Just wanted to share.

In memory of all people fallen as cannon fodder for humanity's stupid wars, or for curbing the dark side of human nature for those few "necessary" wars.

I love my family more than I love yours. :P

Please thank your friend for his/her good idea. Senseless, needless deaths effect us all regardless of human-made borders.

which is about as much as I care to do in terms of honoring the war dead, who don't really care what we do, anyway.

Dead is dead, and I wonder, if they had the chance, how many of tose who died in military service would say that they'd do it again.

I've seen "Patton" before, a long time ago, when it first came out, but I never spotted how utterly gay Patton was portrayed. George C. Scott does this with such a superb tongue-in-cheek, I can't believe it. The script that some hysterically funny moments, and there is a serious homoerotic subtext running through the whole thing.

Hell, that's the military, though, isn't it? Or am I just being a smart aleck?

glorifying violence around Memorial Day. Is this a morbid weekend or what?
I'm glad it's almost over. I don't like war, war movies, or war anything.

You probably didn't even take advantage of any of the Memorial Day sales, did you?



I don't know what your problem is, you dirty Commie, but we REAL Americans love war and violence and gore and blood and death, just so long as it's fake and up there on the screen.

And we do love our small appliance sales, because WE ARE PATRIOTS!!!

(Do I need to insert that "sarcasm" emoticon here? Do I? Really?)

"...This cemetery is in and of itself a testament to the price our nation has paid for freedom. A quarter of a million marble headstones dot these rolling hills in perfect military order, worthy of the dignity of those who rest here. It can seem overwhelming. But for the families of the fallen, just one stone stands out -- one stone that requires no map to find...


...If the fallen could speak to us, what would they say? Would they console us? Perhaps they might say that while they could not know they'd be called upon to storm a beach through a hail of gunfire, they were willing to give up everything for the defense of our freedom; that while they could not know they'd be called upon to jump into the mountains of Afghanistan and seek an elusive enemy, they were willing to sacrifice all for their country; that while they couldn't possibly know they would be called to leave this world for another, they were willing to take that chance to save the lives of their brothers and sisters in arms.

What is thing, this sense of duty? What tugs at a person until he or she says "Send me"? Why, in an age when so many have acted only in pursuit of the narrowest self-interest, have the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines of this generation volunteered all that they have on behalf of others? Why have they been willing to bear the heaviest burden?

Whatever it is, they felt some tug; they answered a call; they said "I'll go." That is why they are the best of America, and that is what separates them from those of us who have not served in uniform -- their extraordinary willingness to risk their lives for people they never met."

What a wonderfully beautiful sentiment!

Thanks so much for sharing it.