Monday is the Memorial Day holiday in the United States. It is a holiday which honors those who gave their lives fighting in America’s wars.
Even though I am NOT a fan of post Ronald Reagan America, I cannot help but wonder what kind of world we would live in, even here in Uruguay, without the sacrifices made by those brave men and women honored by this day.
(For those of you whose roots are NOT in the USA (or CSA), this may be of little interest to you–but since mine are, as are those of many of my readers, I hope you will indulge me.)
I have often said that Americans should sing the last verse of The Star Spangled Banner to remind them of what the US is supposed to be about. That verse bears repeating here:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
I suspect most of you have neither heard nor seen those words before.
One cause that was undoubtedly “just” (except to a few ultra-conspiracy aficionados) was the war against Hitler’s Nazi Germany. If you read history closely, you will find that Nazi Germany had a huge influence here in South America. If you don’t believe me, you simply need to remember Juan Peron, the Argentine fascist who learned his trade in Berlin.
We probably would not have a safe and free Uruguay to live in had not men and women from the US and its allies fought and died destroying Nazism!
While I hate what America has become, I will not forget, nor allow to be forgotten, the America that was “A Shining City on a Hill”. It was made thus by freemen, both in war and peace whom we should honor.
May God bless them and may their memory be eternal! Vicnaja pamjat!
But all that is in the past and we must live in the NOW.
And so we move on with our lives in this new land–embracing all that is good here, while bringing the good things from our heritage with us…and leaving the bad behind.
God bless and preserve Uruguay; and keep her in peace so we never need to celebrate a Memorial for our war dead here!
