Happy Memorial Day 2009
May 25th, 2009 by 
Celeste Fremon
For our fallen sons and daughters—and for the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and children who have grieved for their loss.
Johnny Cash wrote and recorded the song above, “The Big Battle,” in 1961 about the fact that courage doesn’t stop at the battlefield but carries on among those for whom the dead are beloved. It borrows its images from the Civil war yet it is a delicately powerful and universal antiwar song, particularly remarkable in that, although it written during the Vietnam era, Cash recorded in well before U.S. combat troops were deployed in 1965 and the Vietnam War became a part of American life.
Can you hear the deafening rumble, can you feel the trembling ground?
It’s not just the horses and wagons, that make such a deafening sound.
For every shot fired has an echo and every man killed wanted life.
There lies your friend Jim McKinney. Can you take the news to his wife?
R.I.P. Man in Black.
Posted in Life in general | 
10 Comments »
May 25th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Thanks Celeste…
May 25th, 2009 at 11:53 am
I’m glad that you posted something else for Memorial Day, other than the preceding post, even though I don’t know that the word “Happy” should define the day. It’s a solemn day of gratefulness and remembrance.
Still, in making this post, you once again evoked another liberal theme – the anti-war one. Our military doesn’t start wars. Wars are started by our civilian government when peace failed. The military ends wars.
Can’t liberals, for just once, honor our men and women in the military, living and dead, without making some political statement?
Just give honor to those who fell in service…period. No lessons or causes…just honor.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Woody, I was always going to post something specifically for Memorial Day. About “Happy,” it was not on the post when I put it up last night, but I added it today as a greeting to all of you, with whom I share this day. I think the post itself is quite solemn enough, but each to his/her own.
As for the rest, the answer is No. I cannot honor those who fell in service without feeling the pain of their loss too. Sorry. Ain’t gonna happen. (I actually tried this year. But it felt entirely dishonest and without regard for the depth of the sacrifice—at least for me. So I put up the rest.)
Clearly Johnny Cash felt the same way.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Woody: “No lessons…”
Who knew ?
May 25th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
“But it felt entirely dishonest and without regard for the depth of the sacrifice—at least for me.”
Which is precisely why it feels good to certain types…
May 25th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life, Woody.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Above all, hatred is self-punishment … May you find peace in your life Woody.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Since reg likes cross-posting as much as his cross-dressing, I hope there’s no objection to me duplicating a comment here that I made elsewhere.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:53 am
(Oops. That last paragraph was mine and not part of the article.)
May 27th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
“Since reg likes cross-posting as much as his cross-dressing…”
A compliment coming from a racist, homophobic little white trash bastard.