faithmouse cartoon 2-8-/06 / Conceived in Liberty and Justice

faithmouse ^ | 2/8/06 | Dan Lacey

[Dan Lacey]

Click cartoon to view larger image. Largest.

The photograph in the cartoon was taken during my trip with Chris to the Blogs4Life conference a few weeks ago. The World War II Memorial is on the mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, the latter unseen here because it would be directly behind you, the viewer, only much closer than the distance to the Lincoln Memorial. There was no water in the large center or side pools of the memorial, which I imagine was due to the fact that water can freeze in January. The long reflecting pool leading up the the Lincoln Memorial was empty as well, except for a few ducks maintaining a stubborn presence in a slight muddy strip of liquid which remained in the center.

The photograph in the cartoon is from a composite of four images that I stitched together in Photoshop. Click on the image below to see a much larger view (large download).

I have a special appreciation for the WWII Memorial because my father, a Brooklynite who's hair bore a certain resemblance to Ronald Reagan's, was drafted, became a gunner's mate on the Hornet and saw combat in the Pacific, a factor which promoted a lifetime battle with alcoholism. I didn't have the best of relationships with my father, largely because he constantly encouraged me to solve my problems with other children by fist fighting them in the street, in battles I always lost. Now and then my father would become beside himself by my constant losing and provoke fights with the fathers of my winning opponents; fights which my father would lose as well, only more spectacularly and with an even larger audience. Again, I didn't have the best of relationships with my father, but I don't blame him for all that he did wrong. We were both victims of bad fathers, and of being sensitive men living under not the kindest conditions.

World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and all other conflicts fought by enlisted men were by proxy composed of sensitive men who didn't want to fight anyone. American draft dodgers fled to Canada during the 1960's and 70's and helped to create a culture of contempt for the military, but men like my father in earlier times didn't seek escape, fought, were traumatized, and created the freedom we enjoy today. We stand on the accomplishments of the grunts before us, men who weren't the bravest or the smartest, but were duty bound to achieving the impossible.

[Dan Lacey]

I've been a freeper for a few years, with cartoons posted in Pookie18's Today's Toons, A Few of FR's Finest, and a number of other forums, and thought I'd try my own thread now and then. My faithmouse cartoon is seen and/or linked on hundreds of sites, including Newsmax, Mens News Daily, and Alan Keyes' Renew America, where it appears as a regular feature. The commentary is from my faithmouse blog. Hope you might enjoy this. God bless!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I don't understand why we don't see more of the memorials in the media.

If no one knows they're there, who's going to remember?

[L98Fiero]

"I don't understand why we don't see more of the memorials in the media."

The last thing the media wants to do is get Americans worked up in some ultra-nationalist, xenophobic, hypre-patriotic frenzy. (Oh yeah, sarc) We might actually see Democrats for what they are.

[sageb1]

There is a certain amount of irony, however, in the idea that honorable men have given their lives to save others so they can live in freedom while the entire concept of giving that same opportunity to the unborn in our own country is disregarded.

[sageb1]

Thank you for posting. I will visit your blog. I enjoy Men's News Daily, as well. Good insight there.

[Eastbound]

Good pix and good stitch. Panny FZ30?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

You're right. I forgot. ;)

[Dan Lacey]

With all respect, dropandgimme20, here's where you are wrong-
We fought the Nazi because they were evil, and wanted to conquer the world with evil. We knew all about Nazi eugenics, and were horrified. The full extent of the horror-of killing the disabled and the retarted, medical experiments, and the scope and true reason for the death camps were discovered first by our troops, who cried at the site, as any healthy person would and should.
When our ships were attacked by suicide pilots, there was no explaining the sort of madness which could drive a culture to sacrifice the lives of young men in such a senseless manner. Again, this sort of senseless disrespect for life was also outside the scope of our understanding.
Our troops died to protect American values, the traditional and time tested values of faith and family. It's both valid and honors the sacrifice of our grandfathers and fathers to know that they weren't dying for an America which allows court ordered mercy killings, or the elimination of complete classes of people, such as children with Down's Syndrome, before they are born.
If you say 'we can't make this sort of point because we don't want to sound like the liberals' who have taken the truth and twisted it into propaganda, then all you are doing is giving the playing field and the moral highground to them. You're saying that we can't declare that our troops actually fight for what is right, because morality is relative. That's the relativist's position...not the traditional, Christian and conservative one.

[Dan Lacey]

I understand your concern as well. God bless.

[hocndoc]

Life, liberty and the pursuit - that's what it's all about.