Memorial Day 2008

This Memorial day holiday, I spent the entire weekend with my family in our nation's capitol. As always the experience was moving and inspiring. To be surrounded by the memories of such great men, is to be immersed in the greatness, the tenacity, the dedication to cause that has formed "the last great hope of mankind on Earth." However, this trip played a more immediate role in its form of inspiration towards my affinity for freedom. That weekend I was surrounded by the modern tyranny of statist atheistic political correctness, and was left with a bitter taste in my mouth for the current state of affairs in America .


Sunday afternoon on the mall, my family and I endeavored to visit the WWII memorial, as my parents had yet to see it. Simply being surrounded by that shining ode to "the last full measure of devotion," is a catalyst to reflective thought. I sat with probably a hundred others with my feet bathing in the refreshing fountain pool. With my family by my side, I reflected on my two great uncles who fought in the "Battle of the Bulge" and on Iwo Jima respectively, and of my recently-deceased grandfather who had been on both oceans as he served in the U.S. Navy. I thought of how many millions of people died in that valiant crusade to rid the world of totalitarian, authoritarian, and evil regimes. I thought of men younger than I storming beaches thousands of miles away from their families as I sat not feet from mine. I thought of the toll in blood that such a crusade had exacted, and the willingness, no eagerness, with which those who served rendered themselves as sacrifices on the altar of freedom. I also, surprisingly felt envious of them. I felt envy for their having a cause so altruistic and pure, an America, a freedom so easy to sacrifice for. One free of onerous government, with actual upward mobility, and one that still asked God's blessing upon it. In short, an America where truth was still sought and righteous indignation embraced.


As my eyes were about to well with earnest tears, I heard a voice state in a vacant and thoughtless tone, "Please exit the pool, the sign says no wading!" I looked around to see who was being chastised for such and infraction and realized quite abruptly that it was at me that the admonishment had been targeted. I then surveyed the dozens of others engaging in the exact same activity as I, and realized that in order to reach my family and I the police officer that had issued the admonition had to pass dozens of others. As I pulled my feet form the pool I asked the officer, "what about all the others?" That, apparently, in the "People's Republic of Columbia," is tantamount to treason.


The diatribe that followed was a monument to just the same authoritarianism that some sixty years ago the men to who's memory the monument had been erected, fought. The officer was rude, repugnant, and insulting. He questioned my patriotism, my family's integrity, and threatened to handcuff my mother if she continued to ask anymore "stupid questions" (Mind you, my mother is a frumpy forty-seven year old woman, who poses as much of threat to anyone as the average head cold.). He warned my mother that she needed to exit the pool at a more rapid pace, and was sure to remind us that he indeed was the "poe-leese," and that we were to follow his every command quickly and quietly, and to stop talking about rights. As the coup des gras, under further threat of arrest, he demanded we exit the monument that our tax dollars had contributed to (not to mention the same paid his salary).


I feel I must explain that during this whole exchange, not one voice was raised, outside of the officer's of course, and that no dispersions were cast upon him personally. However, the term "brown-boot" may have been bantered about in reference to his acumen as an officer of the law. But, he did act like a thug, and as the initial adrenaline wore off from the altercation, certain realities enraged me beyond belief.


As we walked towards the Lincoln Memorial, thoughts raced through my mind, and I would like to expound on some of them further before we move on to the next chapter of this calamitous story.

I could not help but realize the bulk of fellow "waders" were of foreign descent. In today's politically correct climate, they apparently have been rendered immune to such diatribes and abuse.

I wondered why.

Then it occurred to me. The "silent majority", as termed by R.M. Nixon, has been, over the last few decades, conditioned toward certain behavior patterns. The "worker bees" are not expected to ask questions, and so, when we did, our actions and words probably shook the statist sensibilities of the officer to their very core. We are not vehemently protected by the ACLU and its ilk. We are not a "protected class" or members of an oppressed or revered culture. We are simply expected to fund our own relegation to obscurity, bare the burden of governmental attempts at redemption from societies ills (the problems we created), and are by no means permitted to question our new roles. We have been told "our role" as the oppressors, and are now relieved of our right to dissent. Our time has come and passed. This is the root of Rush Limbaugh's "angry white men." Mind you this attribution has no racial or class identity. Simply being of some resource, of some industry, and of some pilferable means relegates you to this unenviable position in society. If you went to college it was because you were rich or white, if you have some money it is because you're a thief or opportunist, if you have self respect it is at another's expense.

In the hopes of "glass half-full," I was willing to dismiss this scene as an anomaly. Perhaps the officer was having a bad day, and I was "reading too much into" this freak occurrence.

The next day we decided to attend the national Memorial Day Parade. We were surrounded by throngs of people. Most, again, were of foreign descent, which lent itself heavily to the tourist atmosphere. As I have been a tourist in foreign atmospheres, I begrudge them no experience that America has to offer.

However, during the invocation and subsequent singing of the National Anthem, the lack of respect for my culture's mores was palpable. I endured as the Korean family talked through the entirety of the "Star Spangled Banner", and that another group refused to either stand or remove their hats during the opening prayer.


Despite my frustration with those that perhaps did not know better, my infuriation with my fellow countrymen's apparent total lack of respect was all-encompassing. This bubbling displeasure was not quelled at the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. To my amazement, they left out the "under God" part. This was followed by a couple behind me expressing their assent to this bastardization and their glee at my now-apparent disgust with my surroundings. Their exact quote: "What if you're an atheist, get over it."

Needless to say, not long after this, my family and I staggered away from this heretical display, following our overhearing an entire conversation taking place during a moment of "silence" and the playing of taps. We were thoroughly exasperated by the depths of politically correct depravity that is now embodied by our nation's capitol and the lack of both civic knowledge and national pride displayed by its inhabitants.

Our nation has sunk to new lows. Once those who critiqued our nation (some violently so) had a rational and discernible basis for their critique. Their disrespect for some aspects of America was an act of civil disobedience in hopes of her reform. In the present day, the world has devolved to what can only be described as ubiquitous ignorance. Our sins are those of omission rather than commission, and our complaints rest only in a lack of satisfaction of our latest and thus most dire desire.

These thoughts all but cemented my earlier sentiments as truth. We are being dumbed down, relegated to the role of ants in a colony who's only responsibility is to uphold the status quo, our pride in our God and our nation are being defined as "archaic" and "insensitive", and, most of all, our sovereignty as a nation is being slowly eroded in the name of increased unity.

We are the "Brave New World." We are saturated with ignorance and separated only by the status we wear on our jeans. We are the "Vanity Fair" from Pilgrim's Progress, and we are ripe for enslavement.