The last drive home *UPDATED, with video*
Bookworm on Jul 20 2009 at 11:02 am | Filed under: Military
One of the things I struggle to explain to my kids is that “the military,” in the abstract, is neither good nor bad. Nor does size matter. David and Goliath is an inspiring story, because we like to see the little guy win. However, David also had right on his side. As I’ve said time and again to my kids, there are bad underdogs. Just because you’re a little organization, or country, or army, does not mean that you are morally right.
What matters, always, is the cause for which a specific country or military stands. Does the country or military seek to subjugate and enslave people? Then it’s bad. Does it seek to protect people from those who would enslave them? Then it’s good.
As to that last, protecting others’ freedom is a uniquely American concept. There have always been countries that fought against a deadly threat to their lives and land, whether it was the last vestiges of the Roman Empire fighting against the Huns, the British fighting the Napoleonic juggernaut, or the British (again) standing against the Nazis. A beneficial by-product of these defensive fights was the destruction of a brutal enemy intent on taking over the known world. Only Americans have fought for the abstract concept known as freedom, and only Americans have been willing to rip their country apart at home for freedom or take that same fight abroad.
I raise this issue because two stories crossed my radar today, both about men who fought (and died) to bring freedom to strangers in far away lands. The first death was that of Darrell “Shifty” Powers, one of the heroes of World War II. He survived the war, and led a long and productive life afterwards. As punishment for being a war hero and a good citizen, the establishment virtually ignored his death. Blackfive is seeking to remedy that situation, and you can read about a life well lived here.
More recently there was another death that might have passed without notice, if it hadn’t been for the citizens of Georgia. On June 4, 2009, Sgt 1st Class John C. Beale, 39 years old, was killed in action in Afghanistan. What saved him from being another “grim milestone” in the war against the Islamic fanatics who wish to dominate all points on the globe, was a single announcement in a newspaper, and the patriotism and gratitude of those citizens in Georgia who found themselves between the airport and the cemetery. The video of Sgt. Beale’s last trip home is here. It’s 12 minutes long, and you will feel ripped in pieces by being simultaneously inspired and heartbroken.
Because we’re human, we make mistakes, whether as a country or a military. Because we’re human, we have both good people and bad people and, sometimes, it seems as if the bad people are running things. But because we’re American, our goals and our attitude always incline us towards freedom. And our history, and the stories of Darrell “Shifty” Powers and Sgt. Beale, show us that freedom is the greatest moral restraint and the greatest humanizing influence imaginable.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
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11 Responses to “The last drive home *UPDATED, with video*”
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The last drive home…
One of the things I struggle to explain to my kids is that “the military,” in the abstract, is neither good nor bad. Nor does size matter. David and Goliath is an inspiring story, because we like to see the……
“Let’s not, but let’s say that we did.”…
Rusty Shackleford is spitting bullets about the fact that the Taliban have kidnapped Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl and are parading him for propaganda purposes. Although it’s easy to get all tangled up about international law and whether the Geneva Convention sh…
Do not forget that freedom just isn’t the ability to do things, it is also the ability to prevent things from being done.
You cannot be free if you were always able to do anything you wanted. That’s not freedom. That’s omnipotence. Liberty and freedom only matter in the context of restraints and restrictions.
The Left likes to pretend that freedom is about letting people do whatever they want: with ‘whatever’ being defined as anything destructive to future generations of Americans.
The person that does whatever emotions say, the person that does whatever they feel like doing at any particular moment, is not free, Book. He and she is nothing but a cog, a slave, a tool.
Your children will have been indoctrinated in the Left’s definition of freedom. Rarely would they indoctrinated in my definition of it or the definition of the Founding Fathers. Pray that they will break free of that indoctrination. Freedom is not about the ability just to do things. It is about the ability Not to do the things that you may be motivated, by whatever, to do.
Yamrsakar, good points. Vlacav Havel said that the evil of communism was that it forbade people to do the right thing, to act morally. You could fornicate and sodomize all you wanted—which is the life goal of so many leftists—as long as you paid lip service to the state and never acted against its interests.
But sometimes the most moral thing you can do is to subvert the state, especially when it pretends to either beneficence or omnipotence.
Who is Spartacus?
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Could not make it all the way through the video…Heartrending.
I, too, could not watch the Sgt. John Beale tape all the way through. I was wiping tears from my eyes, both out of sadness for the event and in pride of my countrymen and country women. We may get through this yet.
Wow.
I know nothing can replace the loss of a son, father, and husband, but I’m sure that seeing all those people had to help the family through this unimaginable heartbreak.
I know that seeing this was good for my soul. It makes me feel that not everything is lost.
A citizen is not just a civilian that sits back like the pampered show dog and protected sheep. He leads from the front when it is required, by taking the initiative.
Deana, Danny, I watched Taking Chance back around when Obama was elected in Janauary. Like the video did for you, the movie also uplifted my spirits and set my perspective in store.
It didn’t change reality, it only set the priorities straight. Some people matter, others matter less.