VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

Wednesday, April 24, 5:01:05 [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Wed, May 30 2018, 22:56:23 PDT
Author: Ken de Russy (Foxhole Atheist)
Author Host/IP: NoHost / 172.92.227.113
Subject: Re: Gratitude to All Who Served
In reply to: Hector 's message, "Re: Gratitude to All Who Served" on Tue, May 29 2018, 15:48:02 PDT

Thanks for that Hector. That is indeed a more succinct expression of how keeping our continuing duty of service to our oath honors the fallen. I tend to write my thoughts with little planning and have rarely expressed myself briefly. I began that composition last week with little thought that Memorial Day is specifically to honor the fallen and not veterans in general. Still my goal of that post, long and winding as it is was to describe my growing recognition that stronger and better troops kept me alive then and have made possible my good life since. Further I recognize that it is the meaning of the specific oath we have uttered that bonds us. We pledged to bear true faith and allegiance to defending our Constitution. For perspective the oath does not name defense of country, community, county, town, region, elected officials, family, personal or political beliefs or our flag. It is explicitly an oath to defend the principles in the Constitution. We cannot know what motivates another or what is in their heart when they recite that oath but I can think of no greater honor to extend to the fallen who gave their "last full measure of devotion" than to believe they were living out their oath.

And so we honor the fallen but as Abraham Lincoln reminds us "...It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain..."

A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. George William Curtis

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:


[ Login ] Create Account Not required to post.
Post a public reply to this message | Go post a new public message
 * HTML allowed in marked fields.
Post Password:
Keep password cookie for 24 hours

Message subject (required):

Name (Registered users only):

  Expression (Optional mood/title along with your name) Examples: (happy, sad, The Joyful, etc.) help)

  E-mail address (required):

Type your message here:

Choose Message Icon: [ View Emoticons ]

Notice: Copies of your message may remain on this and other systems on internet. Please be respectful.

[ Contact Forum Admin ]


Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.