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Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Memorial Day is upon us. It has always been my favorite holiday and not because of the long weekend, but because it is the one time of the year when the cemeteries wear their full dress and it lets us pause to remember those now gone from this earth. Certainly we carry fond memories of all of those who have gone before, although the memories of them dim over time.
It has made me think this week about a very select group who have passed. Among those we honor on Memorial Day are those who are Missing in Action, the ones who never came home. It is hard for me to imagine the grief and heartache the families of those left behind must feel. I remember the excitement certainly when Francis Love came home after years of wonder about what really happened to him.
Yes, we all know that for most of our missing the clock has run out, and they lay where they fell in a grave that no one can visit or mark in remembrance of them. But still it makes one wonder about them and what their final resting place is like. Is it just below the surface in a field in France, or perhaps in the deepest ocean, or maybe resting high on a jungle mountain just waiting to be found.
So when you take the time this week to visit, pray and pay respect to those who have gone from this earth, take a moment and say a prayer for the missing. We pray for peace, we pray that someday they are found and returned home, and that if they never be found they rest easy in the knowledge that we will not forget. And we pray for their loved ones and friends, who saw them off and still remember the faces and the voices that have been absent these many years.
Missing in Action
By S.G Cardin
Lost and alone…
Acid smells of mustard gas assault my senses.
Stumbling, I collapse on the early morning dew.
Fallen in the fight, in the war to end all wars.
Time passes, slow and steady.
The cries of war fade away.
Solemn and quiet I stand before thee.
Nameless, Unknowing…missing in Action.
Did I weep once for fallen comrades?
How many have suffered my fate?
No memory, no home, lost in action.
Years mark the passage of time.
Renewed cruelty of the mast race.
To suffer the loss a second time, is too much to face.
Upon the shores of Normandy, ocean’s waves ease us all.
Renewed in faith, blessed in life.
How many more that should have taken, are missing in action?
See you next week…Remember, we’re all in this together.