By Jerry Burke
As of last Thursday, it had been 1,346 days since the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I'll get back to that number in a second. First, it's time for a little praise.
Monday is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to assure that the blessings of liberty would be secured for posterity.
We can't thank these brave individuals enough. Without them, I wouldn't be writing this column, and chances are you wouldn't be around to read it. They should be thanked every day, but the last Monday in May is their day. Forget about the "start of the summer" crud, boys and girls. Give them your time, your thoughts and your prayers, because without them it's all a moot point.
As I write this, there are more names being added to the list of our honored dead. More fathers, more sisters, more children and friends whom we will never again laugh with or depend on. They are dying because our leaders, whom we allegedly elected, decided that there was a threat to our nation that must be stopped.
And while they are over there, we are here, living our lives without much sacrifice. Oh, sure, our liberties have frayed a bit, and whatever you do, don't get sick unless you can afford it.
On second thought, maybe some of us are making some pretty big sacrifices. Since the start of this war, real wages have frozen solid while inflation creeps upward. Our media has sacrificed news for entertainment, assuring that you will get every last detail of the Michael Jackson trial minute by minute, but little of the truth behind former Arizona Cardinal and true American hero Pat Tillman's death at the hands of his own men and the subsequent coverup only a year after the fact.
With the government sacrificing the estate tax and cutting taxes across the board for corporations and "business owners," the shared burden will reach out to our unborn children for generations to come. Blue states will sacrifice 28,200 military jobs in Donald Rumsfeld's latest awesome base-closing proposal (but red states will gain 14,710, so I guess it's kind of fair to some people).
We've been asked to sacrifice Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor laws and farm programs. Which reminds me of a quote from a rather significant military figure in America history. "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history," President Dwight Eisenhower said in 1954. "There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Strong words, Ike. But you were right. This country is now being led by people whose idea of a sacrifice is giving up a board seat on a defense company because they're the Vice President now, and it might look "inappropriate" to keep it.
Oh, and the significance of 1,346 days? In the 1,346 days between December 7, 1941, and August 14, 1945, the United States and its allies successfully defeated both Germany and Japan in World War II.
It's amazing what this country can do with the right people in charge.
This Memorial Day, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. But let's also remember to keep the great nation they died for just as great as it was when they left it. Keep their memories alive by making sure the liberties and freedoms they perished defending never go away.
