Memorial day

While puttering around on the internet this Memorial day I came across this site put together by Martha R Gore. The first quote listed is from the "Father of our country" really got me thinking of my "tours" of Vietnam. When we returned, if in uniform, we were spat upon sworn at and cursed. Many of us made sure to wear "civvies" or other disguises in order to avoid these confrontations. I remember this was a very unpopular war in unsettling times of our nation. I also remember that we were returning after many of our friends returned home in flag draped caskets. I never was able to get over the feeling that we were hated where we fought and hated upon return.
So these are the images that are jogged every Memorial day. It makes this day a conflict in feeling for me every year. Sad memories of loss of friends, and the unofficial first of summer. A day away from work that I can spend with my family.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."
- George Washington



"It is not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with us, not over us; stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."

- Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981



"...That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed."

- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

- Thomas Jefferson



"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph."

- Thomas Paine, The Crisis - December, 1776




"A Republic, madam, if you can hold on to it!"

- Benjamin Franklin, responding to a lady in a crowd, who, at the close of the Constitutional Convention, called out, "Mr. Franklin! What kind of a government have you given us?!"
- Sept. 17, 1787



"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

- Abraham Lincoln - April 6, 1859




"I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!"

- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower - June 6, 1944



"No other terms than unconditional and immediate surrender. I propose to move immediately upon your works."

- Gen. Ulyses S. Grant to General Simon Bolivar Buckner at Fort Donelson, earning Grant the nickname, "Unconditional Surrender" Grant - Feb. 16, 1862




"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country."

- Nathan Hale, hung as a spy by the British at the age of twenty one - Sept. 21, 1776




"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win the war, by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!"

- Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. - May 31, 1944



"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue--and thoroughly immoral--doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

- Robert Heinlein, author




"First make sure you're right, then go ahead."

- Davy Crockett

"You can go to hell -- I'm going to Texas!"

- Davy Crockett, Frontiersman, U.S. Senator

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"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

- William Pitt, Enlish Prime Minister - Nov. 18, 1783





"Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!"

- Sir Walter Scott, English novelist and poet

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Author: Martha R Gore