Paps

Memorial Day, 2001

Today is Memorial Day. It�s great to have a three-day weekend. We pack up and go on family vacations, visit far away family, or just hang out and relax at home. However, I know in my case, I don�t spend enough time thinking about the sacrifices made for all the things I take for granted. I want to say thank you, thank you to every current and former man and woman of this nation�s armed forces. You are, for better or worse, a cross section of this country, with all the possibilities and failings we all have. But all of you put on that uniform, and thus put yourselves in the vanguard of freedom.
I want to thank my grandfather, gone two years now. I try to think of you at 19; still a boy in many ways, standing in a wood bottomed boat, heading towards a beach strewn with dead men. It was just a few days after D-day and less than two minutes until you would be forced to grow up. I try to fathom how it is possible that friends of yours died on the right, and on the left of you, but somehow fate or luck spared you. All the way through the end of the war, you were somehow untouchable. I know how you thought you might die every day, and how, sometimes, death seemed more favorable than wondering why you should be one to bear witness to the continuing horrors of mankind. I know how, in your twilight years I saw you cry as you thought about the gift you were given. I thank you for being shining example of a shining generation. Our nation lost its innocence with you, but found its voice with you too. You came home and started work, the very next day! You were a true patriarch, keeping together a huge extended family each of whom hopes to be a bit like you, and I see you in all of them! You were stubborn. You were rough. You were sometimes irrational. You worked your kids too hard sometimes. You loved your wife unconditionally for so many years. You sacrificed much for so many and never once asked for recognition in words or actions. You were a flawed, beautiful, grumpy old man�I love you Paps.
In just a short time, we are going to lose most of this generation. The generation Tom Brokaw so aptly named �The Greatest Generation.� They were not perfect of course. They had all the character flaws and lives gone astray that we do. That is why they are so magnificent. They changed a nation in war, and peace. The men who fought, and died; the women who shed traditional roles; the minorities, including Japanese Americans, and African Americans, who helped light the kindling of civil rights; To all of these people�I say thank you. And to all of us�I say�Let�s build on this generation. Let�s not throw away or discount the sacrifices made for the things we take for granted. Character is what is done when others are not looking. Both of my grandfathers� instinctively knew that. I hope that someday I can be more like them.