Memorial Day Really Means Something

I sat and listened to the President of the United States speaking today from the Rose Garden at the White House. Mr. Bush spoke of the importance of Iraq, why the Immigration Bill was so important, why individuals could find small details in the bill to reject, but that taken as a package, the bill was something that could pass and revolutionize Immigration in America.

We would make sure that the bill had something for everyone. There would be no amnesty. And so on and so forth and on and on. We would be politically correct and see this through to the bitter end.

As far as I am concerned, "political correctness" is the result of the two political partys getting away from compromising and instead fighting every issue to the death. What is typical of today is that you can ask people of either party and they will agree with this thesis. If you ask a Democratic, they will say that they Republicans started it and that it has become a tradition now. And, to no ones surprise, if you ask a Republican, you get exactly the reverse, that the Democrats started the problem, and that now the Republicans are doing the same thing in return. I can hear my father screaming at me that if someone jumped off a bridge, would I do the same thing, and wasn't I EVER going to learn to think for myself. I'm hoping for a better Immigration Bill, myself.

Which brings me to the purpose of my post. This weekend is Memorial Day. I find it a solemn occasion. I am really privileged. I got to grow up in this country, I got to work, get an education, succeeded reasonably well, have great friends, eat more than a human being should legally eat and generally have it pretty well. I don't live in a place like Darfur, a place I send money and wish I could stop the genocide. I generally feel pretty impotent not doing more.

There's other places where we have troops fighting, and hopefully in some of these places, people will end up freer than they were before. Maybe one day the United Nations will be able to do something. Maybe one day freedom will be universal. In the history of this country, every generation has fought a war. I wish I could guarantee you that each and every generation had fought a war to keep us free. I prefer to think that because the people that wear the uniform and answer the call to service do it with well-meaning hearts. I pray their lives were well spent regardless of my political feelings which may be to the contrary. Regardless, the openness and freedom of the society that I have the good fortune to live in is paid for by the lives of the people in uniform who keep me and you free. We are indebted to them, and Monday is the day we should turn our thoughts to them and the sacrifices they have made for us.

I am writing today to say that i am grateful and most appreciative for the gift they have given me. I hope you'll join me. I have a fabulous weekend planned. The cornerstone is when I get to play with a 9 year old and a 12 year old and I get to act my real age, a kid again. I'm getting really tired of being an adult. Have a great weekend y'all.