Catching Idle Butterflies

An Observation

As I age, not only do my priorities change, but the things I once considered of utmost importance have switched places with the things I never thought gave a first thought to, let alone a second.

My observance of holidays is one of them. I used to love Halloween and Christmas, for the most obvious of reasons – what was in it for me.

Now I give them but a cursory nod, and that’s only because of friends, family and neighbors observe them, and I feel obligated to participate.

One holiday I used to ignore as a child, yet I now consider more important and worthy of attention is Veteran’s Day. It falls on November 11th, though because it falls on a Saturday this year, our banks, government agencies and many other businesses will be closed today in observance.

From the website http://www.patriotism.org/veterans%5Fday/index.html

The Story of the Unknown Soldier

Armistice Day was observed all over the United States by veteran's parades, public services both religious and secular, with two minutes of silence to honor the dead. In 1920, the British Unknown Soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey, the burial place of kings and queens; that same year a French Unknown Soldier was interred at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where a perpetual flame burns.

In 1921, the American Unknown Soldier, symbolizing all the unknown dead, was chosen in an unusual way. Six soldiers of the American Army of Occupation in Germany were selected from different sectors to act as pallbearers. They met at Chalons-sur-Marne, and were interviewed by General Rogers.

Next day, Sergeant Edward F. Younger of the 59th Infantry was asked to make a choice among four caskets, with unidentified bodies disinterred from American cemeteries at Bony, Belleau Wood, Romagne, and Thiaucourt. When the sergeant was ready to perform his solemn duty, he received a bouquet of white roses, with instructions to proceed into the City Hall at Chalons, where the four caskets stood. Sergeant Younger realized fully the grave importance of his action; and after bowing his head, he walked around the coffins three times. On the fourth round, he seemed involuntarily drawn to the second one. Reverently, he laid the roses on it, saluted and reported to his commanding officer that he had accomplished his mission.

The body of the Unknown Soldier was brought home on the cruiser, Olympia, reaching Washington, D.C., on November 9, 1921. For three days thousands of people passed by as the body lay in state in the rotunda of the Capitol. For this important Armistice Day in 1921, President Harding requested that flags be flown from sunrise to sunset at half mast, and that all Americans pay silent tribute as the casket was lowered into the tomb at 11 A.M. on November 11, 1921. There were elaborate ceremonies. High army, navy, and other service personnel, along with diplomats, who had followed the caisson to Arlington, heard the President's address. Many wreaths came from all over our country, and from abroad, these were placed on the plain white marble tomb, on which [carved are] these words:

Here rests in honored glory An American Soldier Known but to God.

And this excerpted from http://archive.patriotpost.us/pub/03-46_Brief/

"Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love. The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you." --Ronald Reagan, Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, June 6, 1984

I pray these words will continue to be true not only of all wars past, but the wars of today, and wars yet to be fought. To every Veteran, past, present and future, you have my eternal gratitude and love for standing in the way of danger at the risk of your life, in some cases your sanity, perhaps even your soul, so I and millions of others will never have to.

Thank you .