Posted by Mark in NJ on Wednesday, April 02, 2003 at 10:02PM :
Hello all, it has been a while.
I don't wish to debate wheather I am for the war or against it.
Even though I was unable to respond to past postings, I would like to point out that this is a most oppurtune time to teach the young respect for the sacrifices that people have made in combat over the years.
It is not just the solider in the field that sacrifices. Here is an exerpt from, "Saving Private Ryan".
Gen. George C. Marshall:
I have here a very old letter, written to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston. "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,
Abraham Lincoln."
We may tend to forget that this happens on the other side of the front lines. I often wonder what other people have been through as I see them or meet them.
I have a 34 friend who is from Vietnam. He lost both parents before he knew them. He lost both adoptive parents before he knew them. Raised by his 2 older adoptive sisters, they all spent over a year in a refugee camp in another country as they excaped Vietnam. They came to the USA through Church sponsership.
They are productive people.
I look at senior citizens and wonder what they have been through and if they lost loved ones in a war.
We love these trucks. They are used not only for the military but by hard working people who put food on our tables, who put out fires, who help stranded motorists in all kinds of weather, who provide many other back breaking services.
Lets more take the time to teach our youth and hope they in the future, can prevent the need for War.
Just some thoughts.
Mark in NJ