{"id":22851,"date":"2014-05-26T07:35:53","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T11:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22851"},"modified":"2014-05-26T07:40:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-26T11:40:32","slug":"memorial-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22851","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was written by a friend of mine who is retired from the Marine Corps<\/a>. She is an Iraqi war<\/a> veteran, and I wanted to share her thoughts on Memorial Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hamilton Fish<\/a>, Secretary of State in the 1850s, said \u201cIf the country is worth dying for in a time of war, let us ensure that it is worth living for in a time of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

 
\nI grew up in an affluent neighborhood in the Bay Area<\/a> in California<\/a>\u2013the type of place where people speak of being proud to be Americans<\/a>, but only because it is a place where they are allowed to live their accustomed lifestyle. But then again, it was also in the 1980s, a time of peace and prosperity when it was easy to say you love this place. Time had healed the bitter sentiments surrounding Vietnam<\/a>, and we could all be happy dancing in a ring around the sun, so to speak.<\/p>\n

 
\nI have now seen life further from the Utopian suburbia of my youth than just about anyone there cares to know. The reality, now, is that we are not a country experiencing peace and prosperity. But that shouldn\u2019t make us any less proud.<\/p>\n

 
\nI am back in my childhood home this weekend, and it got me thinking about what Memorial Day is. I was here to attend my sister\u2019s Bridal Shower<\/a>\u2013a gathering of women, most of whom I have known from childhood. As the token neighborhood veteran, I always get quite a few \u201cthank you for your service\u201d niceties.
\nWhile the sentiments are always appreciated, I am not ultimately the one who should be thanked. It\u2019s the one who didn\u2019t come home\u2013the one who never got to hear a \u201cthank you for your service.\u201d The one who never got to see a yellow ribbon tied around a tree. They found this country worth dying for, so, in their honor make this country worth living for.<\/p>\n

 
\nWe are engaged in what has been called \u201cThe Long War.\u201d It may be a long time before we can agree to call our country \u201cat peace.\u201d So make it worth living for now. Honor those who have giving all by living and drinking in the freedoms of this land. Go exercise your right to freedom of speech and religious practice. Be proud of what makes you unique. Speak for the war, against the war, be gay or straight, worship your god. And do in a way worth living \u2014 because thanks to those who have died, you can do it freely. Drink this freedom in. And through living life, we can make this country feel at peace.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs for me, right now I\u2019m going for a run. Because that is what my dear friend the late Maj Megan McClung would want to do today.<\/p>\n

 
\nHappy Memorial Day, God Bless<\/a> all who have gone, and all who are yet to come.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by a friend of mine who is retired from the Marine Corps. She is an Iraqi war veteran, and I wanted to share her thoughts on Memorial Day.   Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7588,30,7589,7587,5125,3128,285,3773],"class_list":["post-22851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bridal-shower","tag-california","tag-god-bless","tag-hamilton-fish","tag-iraq-war","tag-memorial-day","tag-united-states","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22851"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22855,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22851\/revisions\/22855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}