To America's Veterans So Great A Debt We Owe
By Mark R. Schneider
Driving home today I listened to a debate over whether the FCC should allow the prime time airing of Steven Spielbergs' WWII epic: Saving Private Ryan. It's a gritty, harrowing, depiction of war as it actually exists, with its attendant violence and raw visceral emotion on vivid display. There's little that's gratuitous here. The language is indeed strong, but Spielberg was striving for maximum authenticity in honor of the men who served during those dark days. My point is not to provide a movie review, though the film is certainly not suitable for children, but a more effective instrument for conveying the true cost of freedom is hard to find.
On this Veteran's Day, while our young men and women are spilling their blood on the bleak streets of Iraq and frigid mountain passes of Afghanistan, I happen to believe most adults should see the film, especially those like me who aren't veterans themselves. It is too easy in our comfortable homes, sipping our lattes, to not contemplate the price of liberty. Freedom is an historical anomaly. Brutality is much more the norm. And it never tires, never slumbers. It always seeks to assert itself, to enslave or kill the vulnerable. 911 is America's most recent reminder, when over 3000 innocent people were slaughtered by a force whose only motive was ideological hate and destruction. The protection of two oceans, which insulated our shores for two hundred years, is no more.
Wishful thinking and naive appeasement will not overcome evil. Only goodness overcomes evil. There is no contradiction here, for goodness includes the exercise of forceful arms in the cause of righteousness (Rom. 13:1-4 ). Governments are instituted by God, in large measure to protect the innocent and combat evil. Our veterans are the vangard in this dangerous business.
One particularly moving scene in Saving Private Ryan shows a room full of army staffers sorting through death notices of soldiers killed in combat. A woman notices that three out of the four Ryan brothers have all been killed. One survives, somewhere in France. When General George C. Marshall is notified of this it reminds him of another mother, Lydia Bixby, who lost all her sons during the Civil War, and he quotes, verbatim, President's Lincoln actual letter of solace.
To Mrs. Lydia Bixby
Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,---I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, A. LINCOLN. (provided by the Abraham Lincoln Association)
On this Veterans Day, let us pray for and honor our men and women in arms. To them we owe a priceless debt.
Driving home today I listened to a debate over whether the FCC should allow the prime time airing of Steven Spielbergs' WWII epic: Saving Private Ryan. It's a gritty, harrowing, depiction of war as it actually exists, with its attendant violence and raw visceral emotion on vivid display. There's little that's gratuitous here. The language is indeed strong, but Spielberg was striving for maximum authenticity in honor of the men who served during those dark days. My point is not to provide a movie review, though the film is certainly not suitable for children, but a more effective instrument for conveying the true cost of freedom is hard to find.
On this Veteran's Day, while our young men and women are spilling their blood on the bleak streets of Iraq and frigid mountain passes of Afghanistan, I happen to believe most adults should see the film, especially those like me who aren't veterans themselves. It is too easy in our comfortable homes, sipping our lattes, to not contemplate the price of liberty. Freedom is an historical anomaly. Brutality is much more the norm. And it never tires, never slumbers. It always seeks to assert itself, to enslave or kill the vulnerable. 911 is America's most recent reminder, when over 3000 innocent people were slaughtered by a force whose only motive was ideological hate and destruction. The protection of two oceans, which insulated our shores for two hundred years, is no more.
Wishful thinking and naive appeasement will not overcome evil. Only goodness overcomes evil. There is no contradiction here, for goodness includes the exercise of forceful arms in the cause of righteousness (Rom. 13:1-4 ). Governments are instituted by God, in large measure to protect the innocent and combat evil. Our veterans are the vangard in this dangerous business.
One particularly moving scene in Saving Private Ryan shows a room full of army staffers sorting through death notices of soldiers killed in combat. A woman notices that three out of the four Ryan brothers have all been killed. One survives, somewhere in France. When General George C. Marshall is notified of this it reminds him of another mother, Lydia Bixby, who lost all her sons during the Civil War, and he quotes, verbatim, President's Lincoln actual letter of solace.
To Mrs. Lydia Bixby
Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,---I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, A. LINCOLN. (provided by the Abraham Lincoln Association)
On this Veterans Day, let us pray for and honor our men and women in arms. To them we owe a priceless debt.
posted by Publius @ 5:11 PM
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