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Tuesday Morning Epistles
Welcome to "Tuesday Morning"—one very positive way to
begin any day of the week.
It's time again for me to be patriotic. I pause to warn
our international readers (and there are more than
a hundred of you) that several times each year I feel
the urge to remind myself (and others) of how great the
towers of freedom and liberty are. If this is a problem
for you, delete now. I'll re-connect with you next week.
This week in the USA (and in other freedom
loving nations in the world) Americans honor their
military veterans. November 11 has been designated
Veterans Day since 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson
proclaimed that day as Armistice Day. It was so named
to recognize the end of World War I and to honor all who
fought in that war. In American cities this week there
will be parades and ceremonies honoring local, state,
and national veterans.
This week's "Tuesday Morning" is entitled "America's New
Debt." In preparation for writing this essay I read an
inspiring paper entitled "Saviors of Civilization," by
Virgil Chapman. He wrote his essay in 1932 in the midst
of the Great Depression in the United States. Chapman
lived during the Spanish-American War, World War I, the
Great Depression, and World War II. He was elected to
serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S.
Senate, representing the State of Kentucky. In his
"Saviors" article, he called America to remember the
price paid by military heroes of the "Great War." Here
is his closing paragraph:
What America needs is the patriotic fervor and
gratitude of the gold-star mother who lost her three
sons, all she had, in the battle of the Marne. After the
Prussian hordes had been driven back, she was permitted
to visit the graves wherein repose all that was mortal
of her heroic sons. At the first grave, that of her
eldest son, she knelt and said a prayer and dropped a
tear. At the grave of her second son she knelt and
kissed the rugged cross and wept again. When she came to
the spot where slept her baby boy she fell upon the
moss-covered mound and poured out her great loving
mother heart in a flood of tears, then rose, gazed
toward heaven, and cried, 'Thank God, the Republic
lives.'"
My friend, it is time to visit that place again, not in
France or any other land, but in our hearts. We need to
pray that mother's pray and proclaim, as she did, "Thank
God, the Republic lives." And may we continue that
celebration for as long as God gives us breath.
Tom Barnard
A Veteran
________________________________________________________________ America’s New Debt Tom Barnard
mericans have been reminded over and over in recent months about the mountain of debt that our government is preparing to pass on to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is enormous. But there is another “debt” that few speak about. And it is not the first time it has been mentioned.
Years after the Armistice was signed in 1918 it was called, among other things, The Great War and even The War to End All Wars. How naïve. But it was indeed a massive undertaking. About 4.5 million Americans were mobilized. Of these, more than 320,000 were killed and wounded between 1914 and the signing of the Armistice. The First World War was history.
In preparation for the war, America’s peaceful resources were mobilized. One author wrote, “Over-night we exchanged the habiliments of peace for the panoply of war.” Millions of young men were persuaded to volunteer to be soldiers and sailors and marines. Hundreds of thousands were sent overseas to battle somebody else’s armies on soil that some of their distant ancestors may have plowed.
When the returning warriors came home, they were welcomed by cheering countrymen. America showed its pride in creative ways. Bands and orchestras played new compositions to honor our heroes. Gratitude was demonstrated in ways never before seen anywhere on the planet in such large numbers. The survivors of World War I were acclaimed as the “Saviors of Civilization.” Promises were made by our nation’s leaders that our brave fighting men and women would not be forgotten but would receive the best of everything America had to offer.
Such promises were soon forgotten. Instead of being generous to those who gave their best in battle, our leaders were generous to our Allies overseas. Billions of dollars of Europe’s war debt was forgiven or cut in half. American industrialists that had amassed fortunes from war contracts demanded even more money from our government in entitlements, and their demands were honored.
Unfortunately, it was not true for those who fought “over there” and their families. How did our leaders compensate those who made Victory in Europe possible? What high honors were heaped upon those who served in the trenches and in the skies over Europe? Medals were given. Eventually, our military heroes received $60 apiece, with more promised. Payment for duty overseas amounted to $1.25 per day per person, and $1.00 per day was paid for domestic military service. And when were these payments made? Years after the Armistice was signed!
Commenting on the seriousness of the condition of America’s veterans of the First World War, Virgil Chapman—U.S. Representative and later U.S. Senator from Kentucky—wrote, “My friends, this obligation is a debt America can never pay in full, a sacred debt to those who risked their lives and sacrificed their health fifteen years ago, that liberty and democracy might survive. Oh, for an awakening to the sacredness of that obligation—a revival of the spirit of 1918.” (100 New Declamations, Babcock Co., Ft. Worth, 1932)
Today, ninety-five years after the launching of World War I, America has a new debt to pay. It is not to Wall Street officials or leaders in the banking and insurance industries. It is to American fighting men and women who currently serve our nation in places near and far, and to the families of those whose lives were lost in defense of defenseless people of other cultures. It is a debt that will never be completely paid.
On November 11 America will celebrate Veterans Day. One newspaper has called it America’s “quietist holiday.” Few citizens can accurately state which war it originally honored. For many years it was called “Armistice Day” or “Remembrance Day.” President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed it to be celebrated on November 11, 1919. In 1938 Congress passed a resolution naming the 11th day of November in each year a legal holiday. It honors the memory of the 24.9 million military veterans in the United States. If we do nothing else this week, let us pray for those who serve our nation with distinction around the world. |