http://jacksonville.com/news/m….._the_world

I had a book on Medal Of Honor winners, and Luke’s was one of the stories told (along with Audie Murphy, Sgt York and 7 or 8 others).

This is the understanding so utterly lacking in our degenerate leadership today, with the exceptions of Barack Obama, Colin Powell, and Al Gore. We have a political Party quite ready to debase our institutions for political advantage. We have business leaders ready to corrupt our economic institutions and blight the lives of others in behalf of a bigger place in the Hamptons.

My great uncle, Frank Luke, Jr. won the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously in WWI. My guess is that he would regard us as unworthy of his sacrifice.

We have our own way of celebrating Memorial Day here in Hawaii. It’s called
Lantern Floating. Thousands were down on the beach before sunset tonight. There were at least 3 huge 30-foot high movie screens showing the live action. Its a Japanese tradition. check it out.

However you celebrated it, I hope it was good.

Bob in HI

I honor Leroy Jason Cornwell, III, and Tom Norvell’s brother, and Murmie’s fiance, and our student body president, and others who died when their number came up. and I honor my son-in-law, who served in VietNam with honor. And my former boss who re-upped in the early 1990s and served in Iraq after winning the Congressional Medal of Honor in VietNam at 19 years old.

I don’t have much respect for the chickenhawk politicians who start stupid wars, but I do respect the grunts who go and serve because they think it is the right thing to do or because they had a lousy draft number but chose to serve honorably anyway.

Next stupid and corporate-oriented war, however, I’d like it if all the soldiers would JUST SAY NO. You know?

Silencio

Silence in the night, all is calm,
bodies are asleep, ambitions at rest.
Rocking a cradle, a mother sings
a beloved song that touches the soul,
because in that cradle lies her hope.

There were five brothers, a saint for a mother.
Each morning five kisses
would tenderly graze the silver strands
of this little old mother’s white hair.
Five sons who went to work in the factory.

Silence in the night, for now all is calm,
bodies are asleep, but ambitions are at work.
A bugle sounds … the country is in danger.
To the shout of “War!”, men slaughter each other,
covering the fields of France with blood.

Now all that is past. Plants bloom,
plowed fields sing a hymn to life.
And the little old mother, with very white hair,
remains all alone … with five medals
for five heroes, awarded to her by the country.

Silence in the night, all is calm,
bodies are asleep, ambitions at rest.
A distant choir of mothers, singing as
they rock in their cradles new hopes.
Silence in the night … silence in souls

Hoy todo ha pasado, florecen las plantas,
un himno a la vida los arados cantan.
Y la viejecita de canas muy blancas,
se quedo muy sola… con cinco medallas
que por cinco heroes, la premio la patria.

Silencio en la noche, ya todo esta en calma,
el musculo duerme, la ambición descansa.
Un coro lejano de madres que cantan
mecen en sus cunas nuevas esperanzas…
Silencio en la noche… silencio en las almas.

—Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera and Horacio Pettorossi (tr. TangoMan, Mike Strand)

Not at all. Good words and thanks.

Post-boomers (I am one) are in a peculiar place – not old enough to have seen South-East Asia, not young enough to have been to the Persian Gulf, at least not in a combat role.

I tend to read and try movies. Today TCM played “Men of the Fighting Lady” and “The Devil’s Brigade” and “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes” and “Sergeant York” and “The Dawn Patrol” and “The Fighting 69th.”

I opted for a late viewing of “Saving Private Ryan.”

I figure if I live in a culture that allows the senseless waste of human life in profligacy, and am unable or unwilling to put a stop to it, I am obligated to look it in the face, no mater how intense. I think that I am not alone.