It’s a debt I can never repay.

Thanks to you all…..

Thank you. God Bless you.

For those in harm’s way. Come home safe. God speed.

This is a thank you to the men and women who have served, are serving and will serve in our military. This is the ultimate sacrifice and the most precious. There is no comparison on this planet to giving your life for strangers, for a way of life. To…..

To my fellow veterans – and Yankee Doodle Dandies. Mr.George M. Cohan has stated it more eloquently than I:

“It seems it always happens. Whenever we get too high-hat and too sophisticated for flag-waving, some thug nation decides we’re a push-over all ready to be blackjacked. And it isn’t long before we’re looking up, mighty anxiously, to be sure the flag’s still waving over us.”

http://the-gathering-storm.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=335156

The pictures are from the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. I stopped by to say a short prayer and shed a few tears on my way home from my last VA appointment. I heard Taps and rifle salutes…

Me too… I dissolve whenever Taps is played. This whole day has been an emotional upheaval from start to finish. It marks the difference between true meaning and just symbolism.

I stumbled onto the Opinion Journal article by chance. It was from April, but I sure was glad I found it.

I’m spending the remainder of this day hugging my wonderful wife and two great dogs. I wish you all an equivalent source of comfort and satisfaction. God Bless America can’t be repeated too many times.

It seems that nearly everyone in my blogrolls has something to say for Memorial Day. Me, I’ll just repeat part of what I said last year: There is something fundamentally sacred that attaches to those who have given their lives for this great nation, a…

So I have a question for you all…

Have you cried yet today?

Well, if not, read this:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006545

Already shed some tears? …Read it anyway.

God Bless Them All.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields…

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields…

It is unmistakably clear that you are the only one here disrespecting this day; you are the only one here choosing debate over reverence.

If you mean a word of what you wrote – then make them your last words on this thread. If you choose to continue the bickering … well, that will speak volumes about your character.

There are other things to think about today.

Here’s one: I spent my morning in a Nashville cemetery, honoring Union and Confederate fallen soldiers. It was a first for me – pondering my conflicted emotions, torn between respect for all fallen warriors and sadness that our bloodiest war pitted us against each other.

I found one old soldier particularly interesting: the grave of Richard Ewell, a General who served under Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. Something about finding the final resting place of a man I’d read and studied was immeasurably moving.

The sacrifice of all of those men – in that war and every other since and before – humbles me beyond words.

No closing thought; my thoughts are too jumbled for coherence at the moment.

Just one thought: I LOVE this country; I’m so glad I served in uniform; I’m so fortunate to have lived in a place that puts freedom and honor ahead of life itself.

I’d say God bless America, but it seems unnecessary today … since its so clear that He already has.

God bless all of you.

Yes, I realize that you liberals don’t ever “hate” anyone. Especially if they are Taliban, Al Qaeda or us dreaded conservatives. “Today’s conservatives” (that bother you so much) still believe in those pesky morals and ethics. Worse yet, they have the spine to say so. How apalling. It must make blurring the black and white, right and wrong issues, much tougher to paint your lovely hue of grey. I certainly hope so! (Whoops… shouldn’t have used that exclamation point… like CAPITAL LETTERS, that might exhibit some emphasis or conviction? I should have surmised that to be out of bounds in Lib World, too.)

We are hardly anything “victim” like at all, nor will we become such thanks to those convictions we hold dear. You know, the one’s you find so worrysome.

Despite your claimed position as “the daughter and the husband” (I should have guessed it) you will NEVER get my approval whether you desire it, require it or otherwise.

Lastly, before I go disgorge over your mock patriotism, the “country’s blessings”, that we dedicate today’s remembrance for, stand in every town and city of this great nation. And they stand in Afghanistan, Iraq, S. Korea, etc… If you had any real sense of any of that, you wouldn’t be objecting to any “rants”…

PS: Bravo, austinnelly!

Related thoughts, here and here. Update: The video above was simply floating around YouTube, but Michelle Malkin custom-produced her own video tribute, for her Hot Air site…….

It’s not often one sees the terms “feel true hated” and “God” in the same post. One of the things that makes me uncomfortable about today’s conservatives (the ones who highjacked the movement, IMO) is this need to always play the victim and the put upon–the victim of whom is anyone’s guess–and the sole possessor of virtue (God loves that attitude, I’m certain….)

I am the daughter and the husband of veterans who served in wartime. I do not require, not desire, your approval. Nice job with the capital letters BTW. Such nuance.

God bless our veterans and all true patriots who take today to thank God for our country’s blessings.