Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

 

Date: November 8, 2006 - # 645 – Veterans Day (803)

With the new Georgia National Cemetery now open near Sutallee Cherokee County will henceforth be in the national spotlight during all future Veterans Day observances. The countywide tributes being paid to veterans this weekend will honor those men and women who have served our country in defending the principles of freedoms deeply embedded in America’s Foundational Documents. It is a never-ending battle that every generation has fought since the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.

            I wonder if those killed at Lexington would be considered a “Veteran” today? I think they would. They gave their life for a cause greater than life itself – freedom. No doubt Jefferson was thinking of these men at Lexington when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. In its preamble are eight words, “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” words which are immortal to some, and words which many believe are the very “Foundational Rock of America’s Freedoms.” These were the words Jefferson was referring to when he wrote, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, . . .”

            The battle for freedom, which began at Lexington, has raged around the world ever since. It is a battle for the minds and souls of mankind. The tactics and instruments of this ongoing war have changed, but not the objectives: freedom and liberty versus the enslavement of man’s mind and heart. This raging battle used to be fought on distant battlefields but is now fought in our own homes. Its weapons today are not the airplanes and battleships of former wars but are the TVs that bring the images and ideological words of this new war right into our family rooms.  The TV screen has become the instrument of political and ideological warfare. The causalities of this new warfare will be those not willing to fight for freedom.

            As I study America’s history I often wonder why America’s silent inactive majority has allowed an active vocal minority to turn Jefferson’s “separation of church and state” into a metaphor that has nearly removed religion from the very fabric of America’s culture while ignoring those immortal words Jefferson embedded into the Declaration of Independence, words that give the importance of liberty an entirely new meaning – they being the very source of America’s freedom and law. An articulate article explaining how Americans allowed this metaphor to override Jefferson’s words in the Declaration is found in the October issue of Imprimis and can be read free on line at www.hillsdale.edu. 

            One can also wonder where Jefferson came up with his immortal words leading to this belief that his eight words are literally this nation’s Foundational Rock of Freedom. Dr. Skousen reported it took Jefferson 17 days to draft the Declaration with 15 of those days spent on drafting the first two paragraphs alone. What anguish, what pondering, and what soul searching he must have gone through! Jefferson knew the importance of the words he was about to write and I think he drew upon all the knowledge he had, and then went to a higher source – his “Creator,” his “Supreme Judge of the World” and there he was inspired to remember the words of his Creator, likely underlined, which suggested this new nation be built upon His rock, which if threatened by rains, floods, and winds would not fall.

            One of my granddaughter Amanda’s school assignments for government class was to interview a veteran. She interviewed me. I am a nine-year veteran and this interview turned into a “teaching moment” about our family’s veterans. My father was a veteran of World War I. Joan’s father was a 35-year veteran of World War I, World War II and the Korean War, and Amanda has a sister, now a veteran of the current war, and two cousins who are or will be veterans. Then grandma Joan showed Amanda a picture of me in my uniform nearly 60s years ago. Her comment “You were a stud grampzee.” And I smiled. I was.

            This holiday remembering veterans was established by President Woodrow Wilson on November 11, 1919, one year following the signing of the Armistice ending World War I, the war to end all wars. So much for hoped for dreams.  Armistice Day became a federal holiday in 1938 — by an act of Congress. In 1954, because the three major wars hadn’t ended all wars, there were now many more “veterans,” so Congress changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day, still retaining it as a national holiday.

            I often wonder, as do many, if the world will ever know peace again? Yes, but not until the Prince of Peace comes.  And until then wars will continually be fought, with more veterans amongst us and with more National Cemeteries created to honor those willing to fight and die that we may all continue to live free.