| Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices. Harry Truman delivered those remarks to the United States Armed Forces, as the new President in the aftermath of his predecessor Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death. World War II was still raging, and Truman was sending a message of resilience to his troops…assurance that their sacrifices would always be remembered. Have we? Remembered? And is that enough? Sixteen million Americans fought in uniform in World War II. They were mostly still boys in their late teens… about 10 million were drafted, and 6 million voluntarily enlisted. They’d already lived through the Great Depression, before being sent to root out the seeds of hatred planted across Europe by a formerly homeless street painter turned anti-Semite. The Greatest Generation is what we call them now. Only around 100,000 of those veterans are left, dying at a rate of about 130 a day. We’re losing them. Maybe we already have another Greatest Generation somewhere out there, who instead of turning to their screens are turning to their neighbors. Who instead of trying to divide us are trying to unite us in what we hold common and dear. Who instead of fighting the fickle battles of culture are fighting the real wars against violent aggressors. Maybe you’re one of them, embodying the greatest traits of our veterans. You don’t have to fight a war to live with honor. But today is Veterans’ Day. And I’m remembering those who have honorably served in the military… including the grandfather I never met, who identified his comrades by their teeth after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, which served as the Greatest Generation’s combat invitation into World War II. Truman closed that 1945 broadcast to the Armed Forces with one of Abraham Lincoln’s great missives. With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up our nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. In other words, we must do more. Remembering is a start, but it isn’t enough. |
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