I’ll Be Seeing You
Today is Memorial Day, the day that, since 1868, we have honored those, mostly young people, who have given their lives in the defense of the freedoms we have and that we share with those in other countries.
There are military cemeteries, 155 in all, in the United States and other countries where those who were killed while serving our country died. I have seen some of them in my travels and I can tell you it is a moving experience. Probably the most well known of these is in Arlington, VA, where President John Kennedy is buried. This cemetery sits on land once owned by Robert E. Lee, who led troops in our Civil War on the side of those who wanted to leave our country so they could continue to enslave other human beings in direct conflict with our own Declaration of Independence.
I have visited the Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii where journalist Ernie Pyle is buried. I have visited the cemetery near the beaches in Normandy with a friend whose father’s name appears on the wall of the missing. His father’s plane was shot down when my friend was only a few weeks old and, at the age of sixty, he was seeing that wall for the first time.
Probably the most moving experience I have had at one of these cemeteries was at the one in Luxembourg. General George Patton is buried there with a simple headstone, just like those of the others. The only thing that sets it apart is that it sits at the front facing the rows of the other graves, as if he were leading them. It was late in the afternoon on a cool spring day, just before sundown. There is a bell tower there and it began to play music, not hymns as you might expect, but popular tunes from the years of WorldWar II. The tune that really hit me hard was “I’ll Be Seeing You.” I just stood and listened, reflecting on the lives of those buried there and the fact that many of them were cheated out of most of what should have been happy and productive lives.
These cemeteries are all meticulously kept. You could eat off the grass and there is not a speck of trash anywhere. The headstones are in perfectly straight lines, no matter from what angle you see them. The graves of Christians have crosses and those of Jewish people are marked with a Star of David.
The story is told that a French politician told General Colin Powell he wanted all American troops out of France. Powell supposedly asked him if that included those who were buried there. I can’t vouch for the truth of that but it does make a good point.
It has been said that old men make wars and young men die in them. Tyrants the likes of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese Emperor Hirohito have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them noncombatants, not to mention the immense amount of property damage. For all the progress made by the human race we still produce monsters like these. We have such a monster in America today who has set us back years and put us at each other’s throats over political and religious differences with his morally bankrupt, narcissistic, and sociopathic behaviors and a cheap charisma that appeals to gullible individuals who can be swayed by his ranting and raving. This is an insult to those buried in our military cemeteries and the ultimate sacrifices they made.
What does it say about us when a Supreme Court justice can display an upside down American flag at his home with impunity and without fear of retribution? That flag is the symbol of those ideals for which countless soldiers have fought and died. We should use this day to reflect on our stated ideals and how well we are living up to them.
I will leave you with three recordings. They are “I’ll Be Seeing You” by The New York Voices, “Hymn to the Fallen” from “Saving Private Ryan” by John Williams, and the “Lincoln Portrait” by Aaron Copland (narration by yours truly).
Until next time.