Last week I was in the District of Columbia for four days. My wife and did the usual tourist stuff such as go out to eat, shop, catch a movie and visit historical sites. Now as I sit at my keyboard I cannot help but reflect on three events: one in the early evening Friday night, one Saturday afternoon, and the other in the morning hours of Monday.
Friday after enjoying dinner in Georgetown we caught a cab to see the Lincoln Memorial and then walked over to the Wall. It was already dark and the Wall was illuminated in the softest of lights. My wife wanted to look up the name of SSgt. Craig M Dix of Livonia, MI. She had wore his POW bracelet for 10 yrs. As for myself I was there to pay tribute to a classmate of my brother's, Thomas E "Tommy" Raubolt of Wyandotte, MI. We located their names in the Registry Book and from there were directed to the appropriate panels. We shared a quiet moment of reflection and pray at the panel bearing each man's name.
Saturday afternoon I went to Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington to visit and pay my respect to the many Marines who died in Pacific Island during WWII. On islands such as Tarawa, the Marshall's, Iwo, the Philippines, and Okinawa Marines fought and died. As I stood looking at the artist depiction of the Flag Raising on Mount Suribachi I recalled the story of the event as told by James Bradley in his book "Flags of Our Fathers." Bradley, whose father was a Navy Corpsmen who helped in the raising of the flag, learned later in life of the events that were memorialized in a Pulitzer Prize photo by Joe Rosenthal and are now immortalized on a hillside overlooking DC. As Admiral Nimitz wrote of this epic struggle for Iwo Jima "Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
On Monday morning after breakfast at our hotel we rode the Metro to Arlington Cemetery. My visit there was two-fold. I wanted to visit the Women in the Military Museum to insure that my mother who served as a US Marine in WWII records were there. From there I wanted to pay my respects at the Tomb of the Unknowns. While in the cemetery I visited the Kennedy gravesite, the USS Maine Memorial, and the Challenger Memorial among other points of interest.
The Wall, Arlington Cemetery, and The Women in the Military, and Iwo Jim Memorial all had one common theme for me. That theme or common thread was "sacrifice." The sacrifice varied immeasurably but it was in every way a sacrifice. The bond of sacrifice inexplicably tied the livings, the dead, the wounded, the missing all together. I reflected on the sacrifice on the home front that paralleled the war efforts abroad.
Today as our service men and women fight and die in the Iraq I wonder where is the sacrifice at home? We have an Administration that says we can give tax cuts to the wealthy, award no-bid contract to campaign contributors, and steal from future generations in order to pay for it all. Where is the honor? Are we such a narcissists that only "our needs" are paramount? And why doesn't the "compassionate conservative" show more sympathy and compassion for the orphans and families member of those who lost their lives fighting the "War of the Georges." Are the orphans and families of the dead less important than fat cat donors or raising money for reelection? Has our President no shame?
I am humbled to be an American. I am also ashamed that the country I served is now lead by a person for whom I hold great contempt. Honesty shows good character. George W. Bush lacks both. He has squandered are most valuable of resources, he has dishonored the dead, he has played loose with the truth, he has brought shame and ridicule from our friend and allies abroad to our nation's great name. George Bush is someone who brings sorrow, distress, or calamity wherever he goes. It is nearing the time when George Bush must pay for his words and deeds. Let us pledge today to make sure that happens in November 2004.