By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--May 29, 2023
Cover Story | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
You owe them, Joe. You owe them for the freedom they left all alive today with the cost of their very lives. You owe each and every soldier, sailor, airman, marine who, when the chips were down, went out into the far too many war zones of the world, in service of their much beloved country.
You owe every heartbroken mother, every heartbroken wife who waited for a son or husband who never came home; every sad loved one who keeps on the mantelpiece a photo of the one who never returned, not just for each passing Memorial Day hypocritical photo-op, but every day of the livelong year in a mourning that never quite fades away.
Democrat-appointed President Biden owes them all because he so cavalierly ditched the freedom for which the war dead laid down their lives for all of us still here.
Some, including author and CFP columnist Bruce Smith never pass by a war monument without stopping to pay them his gratitude:
“I've seen them. In every little village across England and Scotland, they’re there. They’re found across Canada from the Maritimes to the Prairies to British Columbia. Sometimes they are at the crossroads where they can’t be missed, and sometimes they’re off to the side, shielded from the traffic and the bustle. When you know what they are, they become irresistible. When I see one, I have to stop, then approach in reverence. The names are usually toward the bottom where the monument is wider, and often they are on every side. In some towns the list is shockingly long, but in others there may be only a dozen or so. There’s a solemn irony for you. From this tiny village of perhaps three-score houses only a dozen were killed. (Canada Free Press, May 28, 2023)
“I’ve seen them in France, as well. They’re even more somber and shocking, if you can imagine it. The lists of the dead are longer. France was largely an agricultural country when the war began in 1914, so every little village far away from the Western Front and far away from Paris and Lyon and Bordeaux has a monument, too. There are French names I’ve never heard of before. Clearly, there are repeated names that indicate brothers who were lost. Even when visiting on a sunny day, the weight of their loss, the impact of the names on the markers is intense. All lost.
“Along the Western Front in France and Belgium there are upwards of 1000 military cemeteries commemorating the dead of the Great War. They are unforgettable. The British cemeteries are always immaculate and stunning. Nothing is ever out of place, crooked, untrimmed, or untended. The French cemeteries are more somber and equally stunning. They are places of eternal horror and also of eternal hope, terrifying and beautiful.
“In the US, the cemetery markers show us those who served, not just those who gave their lives. The marble markers provided by the government differ little from the markers of those who served in the Second World War. Many veterans of the Great War, like my paternal grandfather, have only the bronze marker on a stake that indicates their service. These often bear the star of the American Legion. The Second World War stake markers have an eagle on them, so even from a distance they can often be distinguished.
“On the Western Front, the most solemn of all are the monuments to the unknown dead, lives commemorated, but anonymously. They are very common, and very troubling.
“So it is a solemn duty bequeathed to us by those who served. Go find them. Recall their sacrifice. Never forget."
And as marked ‘ON THIS MEMORIAL DAY’ By writer Chet Nagle (Canada Free Press, May 29, 2023
"From now until the end of the world, we and it shall be remembered.
"We few, we Band of Brothers. For he who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." William Shakespeare (King Henry V)
“There is a chain made of blood and iron. The heavy links are anchored in Valley Forge and stretch through Gettysburg, Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Coral Sea, and a thousand battlegrounds. New links were forged in the streets of Saigon, Fallujah and Mogadishu.
“On this Memorial Day, in cemeteries from Flanders to Arlington, we place flags on graves to honor the warriors who made and guard that great chain. On this Memorial Day we feel the chain close to us, vibrating with its awesome power—stretching over the horizon into a future that promises more blood and iron.
“We know that men and women are in hallowed ground because they swore an oath to defend our nation and to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Many gave up their lives to that purpose.
Support Canada Free Press
“Soldiers, sailors and airmen who have gone before, and who serve now, have always obeyed the commands of civilians elected to high office. Today, the highest of those officials have never worn a uniform. They have never gone in harm’s way, they have never known a soldier’s fear, and they will never engage in deadly defense of the Republic. Even so, those officials have also sworn an oath to protect the nation and the Constitution. So the soldiers obey.
“But those who fell in great battles and in places with forgotten names are still on guard. If America’s leaders betray their solemn oaths, our fallen guardians will stir in their resting places, and from jungles and deserts and ocean deeps, from one end of the earth to the other, they will rise.
“In the dawn of that future Memorial Day I will hear footfalls of my risen brothers in arms beneath my window. They will march on the city, and above them there will be whispers of more phantoms in parachutes. Then they will assemble in a great formation before the Capitol. Once again their bodies will be whole, their uniforms clean, and their worn rifles and sabers will be renewed.
“That morning the living will muster with the dead. Around the ghosts wearing three-cornered hats and steel helmets, Americans from every town and city will come to give their voices to the silent legion. They will demand an accounting. They will demand a rebirth of the freedom and liberty for which their forefathers fought and died.
“On that coming Memorial Day.”
Nor can many of us ever forget the veterans still with us such as Robert Rosebrock whose pleas for Los Angeles veterans living outside of the gates of the Los Angeles VA, in broken promises of governments that never came to pass,
We can’t forget how this 80-year-old-year-old, true life hero is still out there, but still totally ignored by Biden and other elected to public office.
No point their laying wreaths on cenotaphs on this all but forgotten day.
We know in our hearts that the wreath-laying by politicians seeking self-aggrandizement are, in some instances, the same ones who remained silent when war vets were thrown out of New York hotels, replaced by illegal southern border crossers, are only in front of cenotaphs in acts of meaningless symbolism.
“God bless Robert Rosebrock who dedicates his lifetime to bring Homeless war vets HOME.
“Like an indelible vision of long-gone soldiers that live forever in the memories of their loved ones, Robert Rosebrock has appeared for more than 800 consecutive Sundays and every Memorial Day since March 9, 2008 outside the gates of the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (GLAVA) park calling public attention to America’s abandoned homeless veterans.
It’s a tragic pictorial of homeless and hungry war veterans coming to peer longingly through the gates at what is rightfully theirs through a wrought iron fence.” (Canada Free Press, Feb. 24, 2017)
“Through thick and thin, Rosebrock, Vietnam era U.S. Army veteran and director of the Veterans Revolution and the old Veterans Guard, has remained faithful to his chosen cause. Like media insults, rain and inclement weather matter not to Robert Rosebrock because the plight of hungry and homeless war veterans rains every day in his heart.
His message has remained the same over the long years: “Save Our Veterans Land,” “Bring Our Homeless Veterans HOME.”
God Bless Robert Rosebrock and all of those who lead meaningful battles to bring our war vets in out of the cold.
Meanwhile, we know you, Joe and will never forget that instead of following our war dead in living memory; instead of holding hope for them in their bunkers during battle, you followed instead the depravity of Barack Obama and the Democrats who would take away the freedom they paid for with their very blood on foreign soil.
View Comments