Posted on 01/30/2005 5:18:50 AM PST by dandelion
Yesterday, just as the dawn of Democracy was breaking in Iraq, I visited the grave of PFC Stephen Wyatt. He lies peacefully by his mother in an East Texas meadow, embraced by pine trees and the rolling green hills; there is only quiet and healing there. His epitaph is simple, befitting a soldier so young, and it echoed the poignancy of his life - the date of a nineteen-year-old soldier's death in Iraq. A little red, white and blue plaque had been recently left nestled at the base of his headstone, and new flowers graced an urn next to his name.
I cut a Peace Rose from my Father's nearby grave, and placed it in the little urn next to PFC Wyatt's name. It seemed so small a thing to do for so great a man, on such a day as this...
Epitaphs carved in stone may be beautiful, but they cannot begin to tell the love, the sorrow, the sacrifice surrounding a life; how we each effect the lives of those we leave behind is our true epitaph, and is sometimes so complicated that few will ever know. This is not the case for Stephen Wyatt, nor for any of our American dead. Their true epitaph is so remarkably clear, so definite, that all may see it for what it is:
"As He died to make men Holy, so they died to make men free."
Let this be their epitaph, carved not in stone but in the hearts of men, a true and lasting gift to God and the people He has created. Greater love hath no man than this...
and the light of Freedom is dawning today in Iraq.
Was it worth it? The same question may be asked: was it worth it for our fathers to die for freedome in Europe?
No other answer than yes has been necessary for that last 50 years, and no other answer should be given for Iraq. These men and women were no less noble, no less brave than those of WWII, and they should be remembered with the same reverence. Never again should the Old Media be allowed to tell us what these sacrifice of these men and women is worth...
Thank you for that poignant reminder of what is so true.
Beautiful..Thank you for posting this.
God Bless him and all our brave soldiers who have fallen in the cause of Freedom! May his and their memory be eternal!
Where's the "tissue alert"?
This is such ancient question, what is worth a man's life? There are the abstract answers such as: A man with nothing worth dying for has nothing worth living for.
When you take it to the lowest common denominator, there isn't anything worth dying for OR living for beyond freedom and human dignity.
Those in the coalition of the willing who have died in Iraq to bring this day have provided the ultimate sacrifice for the only thing worth such a sacrifice. Along the way they have made the world a better place.
"The Mansions of the Lord"
To fallen soldiers let us sing
where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
to the mansions of the Lord
No more bleeding no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night
just divine embrace, eternal light
in the mansions of the Lord
Where no mothers cry and no children weep
We will stand and guard tho the angels sleep
All through the ages safely keep the mansions of the Lord
Randall Wallace
This writer has talent.
Very moving.
Was it worth it?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775.
God Bless all who serve such a noble cause.
To fallen soldiers let us sing where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring to the mansions of the Lord
No more bleeding no more fight No prayers pleading through the night
just divine embrace, eternal light in the mansions of the Lord
Where no mothers cry and no children weep We will stand and guard tho the angels sleep
All through the ages safely keep the mansions of the Lord
Randall Wallace
Beautiful.
May I?
It broke me up when they played it at President Reagan's funeral.
Picture?
Semper Fi bttt ...
(give you three guesses....Randall Wallace...We Were Soldiers....my hero?)
Indeed, all of us are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices of preceding generations, going all the way back to 1620, when brave and courageous souls entered these shores to establish the "spirit of liberty" in a place far away from the religious oppression they had suffered elsewhere.
In his "Speech on Conciliation...," on March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke explored the reasons for what he coined the "spirit of liberty," and found it to be in the American colonists' religious beliefs wherein he said they agreed in nothing but that spirit.
President Bush's Second Inaugural included the words of the inscription on our Liberty Bell, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land."
Many, today, would not recognize that they are words from the Scriptures. But that old bell has been a symbol for liberty for many. Its history began when, "in 1751, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly ordered a new bell for the State House. He asked that a Bible verse to be placed on the bell - 'Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof' (Leviticus 25:10). As the official bell of the Pennsylvania State House (today called Independence Hall) it rang many times for public announcements, but we remember times like July 8, 1776 when it rang to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence."
Many of us forget that in 1776, each signer of that Declaration could have been excuted for treason, but they laid their lives on the line for the cause of liberty!
This young soldier and all his comrades follow a long line of individuals who have risked their "lives, property, and sacred honor" in order that we, and millions of others around the world, might exercise Creator-endowed rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." God bless them, one and all!
I will always look back on my military service as one who was thankful for the opportunity to serve, and to give thanks for the freedom and opportunity that our country offers.
So many thoughts and remembrances, so many emotions. Where does America get such fine men and women, in a seemingly endless supply? I think of my dear father-in-law who recently passed away. After serving in the Army during the Korean War, he returned to marry (faithful for 49 years), raise 10 children, working holidays and double-shifts (as a US Customs Agent) to provide a good home. After he retired, his greatest joy was to cook for his (17) grandchildren.
I'm sure there are millions of stories like his. That's why America stays strong.
BTTT
No picture on this end.
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