Memorial Day is about remembering, recognizing and honoring those men and women who made that ultimate sacrifice in the defense of this nation conceived in liberty. The origins of Memorial Day are hotly disputed, but we doubt that it matters. Originally called 'Decoration Day', one of its earliest official incarnations came on May 5, 1868, when General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued his General Order No. 11. General Order No. 11 decreed that on May 30, 1868, flowers be placed on all the graves of the honored, Civil War dead - Union and Confederate - in Arlington National Cemetery.
In the ensuing years, the various states joined in the commemoration, until, after World War I, all the states were on board. After World War I, the day of remembering, recognizing and honoring was expanded to include all Americans who died in the service of their country. Eventually, 'Decoration Day' evolved into Memorial Day which moved from May 30th, to the last Monday in May.
Here in the Free State of PIG, we agree that one day a year should be set aside to 'decorate' the graves of our fallen warriors. We do not, however, like the way this 'remembering, recognizing and honoring' has evolved. By confining these activities to one day of the year, we have allowed ourselves to forget, ignore and dishonor the price paid by these fallen warriors, the other 364 days of the year.
Our willingness to forget, ignore and dishonor spits in the face of the men who froze to death at Valley Forge without ever knowing that their sacrifice made their dream of a nation conceived in liberty a reality.
Our willingness to forget, ignore and dishonor, renders meaningless the blood shed by the 600,000 Americans who fought and died during a Civil War that threatened to tear this nation apart at the seams.
Our willingness to forget, ignore and dishonor erases the sacrifice of the 90,000 Americans who died fighting the arch-enemy of our liberty, Communism, in Korea and Vietnam, when we allow glib political opportunists to make "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", the law of this great land.
Our willingness to forget, ignore and dishonor tells the Americans who died fighting tyranny on battlefields in France, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Kuwait and Iraq "your death is meaningless".
Our willingness to forget, ignore and dishonor means we allow so-called Americans with an agenda to coerce us into obsessing on the nearly 5,000 American warriors who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2003. We’ve had it with these clueless peace punks who want to exploit, and cheapen, the deaths in the on-going war, the way many of their ilk did during the Vietnam War. We are determined to remember, recognize and honor ALL the brave Americans who have died for our country, since this nation’s inception. Each of these deaths must be remembered, recognized and honored equally. A death on the battlefield isn’t demeaned in the least because it occurred in an unpopular war.
The Free State of PIG has had it with this bull crap. We’re declaring war on forget, ignore and dishonor.
When we stand up against those who would strip away our liberties and coerce us into submission, we remember, recognize and honor those out-gunned, out-manned and out-matched patriots who died during the Revolutionary War which gave birth to this nation conceived in liberty.
When we speak out against those who would Balkanize America based on race, national origin and class, we remember, recognize and honor those who died in a bloody Civil War that, at much too high a price, once again made us 'one nation, indivisible'.
When we sound the warning against the new purveyors of international tyranny and those seeking world domination, we remember, recognize and honor more than 450,000 American warriors who died on foreign shores, fighting international tyranny in two World Wars.
The Free State of PIG thinks it is time to kick forget, ignore and dishonor to the curb. The Free State of PIG wants each of us to take remember, recognize and honor to the next level. How? It’s the task of we, the living, to do everything in our power to guarantee that those who died protecting our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness didn’t sacrifice their lives in vain.
Like our heroic warriors, we must arm ourselves for this battle to preserve, protect and defend this nation conceived in liberty. Instead of tanks, planes, rifles and bayonets, we must arm ourselves with the core concepts on which this nation was built. We must use our intellect to fight those who would render meaningless the blood shed for our liberty. While our warriors continue to fight and die in this battle against a determined enemy in far off places, we must do our part by fighting an equally determined enemy here on the home front.
We must remember, recognize and honor our fallen warriors by refusing to let groups like Code Pink and those Westboro Baptist scumbags vilify, slander, and defame the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. This means getting off your butt, Mexifornia Sparky, and showing up at the Marine recruiting office in Beserkeley to show the Code Puke butt bullets that the free speech our warriors died defending has more than one voice.
We must remember, recognize and honor the brave Americans who died defending our nations very existence by fighting back against the Colonistas, border jumpers and Elected Tormentor Quislings who seek to erase our borders.
We must remember, recognize and honor more than 1.1 million Americans who died in battle since this nation’s birth, by restoring the original American vision. We must mount a vigorous counterattack in the halls of government to, once more, make this a nation that maximizes individual liberty and minimizes the intrusive, coercive, downright unAmerican, growth of government.
We must remember, recognize, and honor all the warriors who paid the ultimate price for our liberty, by refusing to let a glib prompter punk and his Libertard Marxist cohorts eviscerate our freedom and dismantle the capitalism that energizes our liberty. We must defend the home front as tirelessly as our men and women in uniform defend America on foreign shores.
We must remember, recognize and honor all the Americans who died for our liberty by reaching out to their fellow warriors who are, at this very moment, putting it all on the line for us. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the voices of the honored dead asking us to make sure we show our 21st century warriors that we still remember, recognize and honor them, too. How? Join one of the many support groups who are dedicated to this worthy task, groups like Soldiers Angels or Adopt -A-Soldier. At minimum, you can remember, recognize and honor our men and women in uniform by simply thanking them for their service to this nation conceived in liberty.
We must never forget why, from this nation’s birth, so many of our best and brightest put themselves in harm’s way and died on our behalf. We don’t have the luxury to sit back and forget, ignore and dishonor these exceptional Americans 364 days a year, then assuage our guilty conscience on the last Monday in May. We must stand up, every day. We must remember, recognize and honor them every day by boldly speaking out on their behalf with this vow:
"They didn’t lay down their lives for campus speech codes. They didn’t lay down their lives to line the pockets of parasites with the rightful property of those who earned it. They didn’t lay down their lives for a properly-hyphenated, Balkanized, race-hustler infested America. They didn’t lay down their lives so the Quislings in the halls of government can hand citizenship to border jumping scumbag invaders whose only interest in America is robbing it blind. They didn’t lay down their lives so a Fifth Column of Jihadikaze operatives can strip away our inalienable liberty and impose Sharia tyranny in its place. They didn’t lay down their lives for an appeaser-in-chief who wants to give away the victories they paid for with their lives. They didn’t lay down their lives so the enemy at home can turn the ‘shining city on the hill’ into an impoverished, third world cess-pool. They laid down their lives for my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and I promise to remember, recognize and honor their sacrifice every day of my life, by taking this fight to our enemies, foreign and domestic."
These noble, heartfelt words are nothing more then hot air, unless we back it up with action. When America's very existence hung in the balance, the patriots of 1776 were there. When America tried to tear itself apart in 1860, brave Americans, on both sides of the battle, were there. When tyrants tried to smother liberty in World War II, brave Americans were there for us. Now, it's our turn. The enemies of our liberty have seized control of our government and are making the sacrifices paid by our fallen warriors meaningless. It's time for us to be there. It's time for us to restore the America they fought for and died defending. It's our turn, now, and I refuse to let them down.
Determined to lead by example, PIG refuses to be forget, ignore and dishonor. From the bottom of our PIGish hearts we thank them...we thank each and every one of them. We begin by thanking Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave who was, arguably, the first individual to die for American liberty when he was shot down on March 5, 1770 in the Boston Massacre. We continue by thanking all those who followed over the next two centuries. We conclude by thanking all the men and women in uniform who are, at this very moment, in harm's way while they're defending this nation that was conceived in liberty.
OK, PIGsters, you've been good enough to listen to our annual Memorial Day Meltdown Sermon, and we know you're pretty hungry and thirsty right about now, and that credit card in your wallet is itching to hit the malls for the sales, so go ahead, tap those kegs, fire up the barbecue and enjoy.
Just remember who made this day possible. And why.
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