Memorial Day
It seems like a very long time ago that I and a friend had rock-throwing challenges in the spot of this picture. The USS Utah sat in Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, and her rusting hulk sits there still, turned turtle, trapping the crew inside on that fateful day.
I’ll never forget the day that we were doing our homeschool in our home at Quarters 108, Ford Island. An elderly man knocked on the door rather sheepishly, and said that he just wanted to see the house. We were a little surprised–that was a strange request in the middle of the day, unannounced–but then he explained how he, as a child, had lived in that house on the day of the surprise attack. He showed us where a bullet from a Japanese Zero went through the wall just above the front door, going through the kitchen, laundry room, and former servant’s quarters.
Even as a kid, and despite bouncing rocks off of the hull of the Utah, I had a profound respect for the memorials that surrounded me. My love for history as I grew only deepened that respect. Where I had clunked rocks off of a rusty hull, men once pounded as the waters rose, desperately trying to save their lives. They gave their lives for this country.
I still can’t go onto a military base without remembering that sacrifice. There’s an aura, a rock solid determination in the sometimes decrepit old buildings. I still get chills when I recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or when I sing the national anthem. And I sure can’t watch an episode of Band of Brothers without reflecting. The sacrifice of these men, and so many others, is unimaginable.
And yet on Memorial Day it is not worth simply reflecting on sacrifice. Sacrifice is only as valuable as the cause it is done for. That is the true beauty of our American memorials. As a nation we have been far from perfect, but if you cut through those imperfections you have, at its core, a nation that is willing to sacrifice for the common good of mankind, and willing to stand for the core principles that give mankind that common good.
When I recite the Pledge of Allegiance, it is the lives behind each simple phrase that give it meaning. Far from meaningless platitudes, these are truths that give us hope, and give hope to all of humanity. For them all have given some, and some have given all.
And those truths that give us hope can continue to drive us–must continue to drive us–as we continue to demonstrate the inalienable truths of the laws of nature and nature’s God.
Happy barbecuing, everyone!