27/05: The Armies of Memorial Day
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
My Great-Uncle Elmo was a WW1-era veteran. Armistice occured before his unit shipped from the States. Each Memorial Day he made it his mission to place small American flags by the grave of each veteran at several cemeteries near his rural home. (He was active well into his 90s.) As he grew older, he worried about who would place the flags after he was gone.
This weekend the American Legion Post in the county seat of his home county had its annual breakfast meeting at Hardees. Over coffee the men divided up cemeteries among themselves, then left in their cars and pick-ups to place flags by the veterans' graves.
I am not aware of any connection between my great-uncle and the current practice of the Legion Post, but I like to think he rests easier.
I call these people the Armies of Memorial Day. Citizen volunteers who see to it that local veterans are honored, not forgotten. Like so much of what is good about America these are not government employees doing a job; these are citizens doing what needs done.
America will be great so long as this spirit of citizenship is strong. My great-uncle did not sit back and complain that someone should do something--he simply, without fanfare, got it done. The Legion members traveling the streets and roads of their county, without reimbursement, are not waiting for a government program, they are getting it done.
Next time you think, "Why doesn't someone do something?", just get it done.
This weekend the American Legion Post in the county seat of his home county had its annual breakfast meeting at Hardees. Over coffee the men divided up cemeteries among themselves, then left in their cars and pick-ups to place flags by the veterans' graves.
I am not aware of any connection between my great-uncle and the current practice of the Legion Post, but I like to think he rests easier.
I call these people the Armies of Memorial Day. Citizen volunteers who see to it that local veterans are honored, not forgotten. Like so much of what is good about America these are not government employees doing a job; these are citizens doing what needs done.
America will be great so long as this spirit of citizenship is strong. My great-uncle did not sit back and complain that someone should do something--he simply, without fanfare, got it done. The Legion members traveling the streets and roads of their county, without reimbursement, are not waiting for a government program, they are getting it done.
Next time you think, "Why doesn't someone do something?", just get it done.
A Waco Farmer wrote:
One thing that does not get said enough by conservatives is that small government only works when citizens take responsibility individually and through voluntary associations. Modernity in the USA gave rise to the government as the entity tasked to take care of people.
An aside: a friendly definition of progressivism is government helping people.
If the size of the government is to be reduced, then people need to get back in the habit of taking care of people.