Consider these words from Theodore Roosevelt:
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. Theodore Roosevelt
How grateful we are that throughout American history, there have always been souls that were willing "to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" to the battle for freedom. There were also those in the original colonies that were very comfortable and didn’t want to rock the imperial boat, so to speak. While many gave all for the new country, many stood by, shamed the patriots, or even collaborated with the oppressors. In many ways, our men- and women-in-arms today follow in hallowed footsteps.
War is not the path we’d choose, forsooth, it is our last resort! But it seems to separate out the noble from the ignoble, doesn’t it? “Teddy” Roosevelt said, for example, were it not for the Civil War, no one would know the name of Lincoln. Nor would we know the name of Booth, I might add. Although we can’t know all our heroes by name, we can know them by the title of American Soldier.
Hence, I remember them here this week.
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