Saturday, May 28, 2011

Do More Than Remember This Memorial Day

It struck me this morning that this Memorial Day weekend has a new and significant meaning for me and many of my fellow Wisconsinites.

Sure there will be the picnics and the cookouts.  There still will be the parades and the flag waving.  There will be still politicians make big speeches honoring those that have given their all for us.

But this year, Memorial Day is much more than any of that.

Ask any American what Memorial Day means and you will hear the same pat answers about how it's to honor the men and women in the armed forces who died to protect our country and our freedom.  This is all true, of course.  But it is no longer enough.

We must do more than remember why these brave men and women made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

In this day and age, when Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald Boyzzzz and the rest of WISGOP are trying to systematically strip us of our civil rights and even our constitutionally protected rights, such as free speech, waving a flag or eating a brat is no longer enough.

We must fight to keep and protect what they had sacrificed their lives for.  We must stop this wholesale assault on our right to our rights, our livelihoods, and everything we as Wisconsinites and Americans believe in and stand for.  This is a fight that should never have happened in our state or our country.  It is unbelievable that it was even allowed to start.  But this fight is now upon us and it is a fight we must win if we want to remain the free and just and proud people we think we are.

You, gentle reader, and I, are now as much needed as the soldier that died on some foreign land to protect our freedoms.  We will not need to make that sacrifice, thank God, but we will need to give our time, our energy, and our money to help remove those that are trying to take our freedoms.  So find some time this weekend to help out in an area near you, whether it is to help keep someone who respects us in office, or to replace someone who would rather sell our rights to the highest bidder.

If you can't go canvassing, then do a phone bank.  If you don't like calling and talking to strangers, there are still other ways you can help, from stuffing envelopes to data entry.  Just find your nearest union hall, or contact your local party office, or even the politician's campaign office and just ask how you can help.

And don't do it just this weekend, but with whatever time you can spare, even if it's only a couple of hours, until this assault on our rights and freedoms is repelled once and for all.

If we don't do this, they will win and we all will lose.  And we will dishonor the sacrifice of those brave men and women by proving they died in vain.

3 comments:

  1. I have held my peace long enough.

    You are disgusting.

    To cheapen the sacrifice of brave men and women who shed their blood and gave their lives, on soil foreign and domestic, to try to score cheap political points is absolutely unbelievable. To use them as pawns because you disagree with those in power is unconscionable.

    Post this, delete it, mark it as spam, I don't care. I've said my piece, and I'm done.

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  2. No, what is disgusting is the hypocritical flag-wavers who claim to be patriotic but then turn a blind eye to the unforgivable assaults on the very things those men and women died for.

    If you don't like the fact that I'm pissed as hell at the double-speaking fools, I'm sorry, but these are my feelings on the matter and I will continue to call BS where I see it.

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  3. Thanks capper.

    A Soldier's Prayer

    The soldier stood and faced his God Which must always come to pass...
    He hoped his shoes were shining Just as brightly as his brass.
    "Step forward now, you soldier, How shall I deal with you?
    Have you always turned the other cheek? To My Church have you been true?"
    The soldier squared his shoulders and Said,"No, Lord, I guess I ain't...
    Because those of us who carry guns Can't always be a saint.
    I've had to work most Sundays And at times my talk was tough,
    And sometimes I've been violent, Because the streets are awfully tough.
    But, I never took a penny That wasn't mine to keep...
    Though I worked a lot of overtime When the bills got just too steep,
    And I never passed a cry for help, Though at times I shook with fear,
    And sometimes, God forgive me, I've wept unmanly tears.
    I know I don't deserve a place Among the people here...
    They never wanted me around Except to calm their fears.
    If you've a place for me here, Lord, It needn't be so grand,
    I never expected or had too much, But if you don't, I'll understand."
    There was a silence all around the throne Where the saints had often trod...
    As the soldier waited quietly, For the judgment of his God,
    "Step forward now you soldier,
    Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
    You've done your time in Hell."

    ReplyDelete