a memorial salute 2023

You I'm thinking of today, you gave your life in serving your country.    You signed on the line, you went overseas, you went over land, you sweated and toiled and suffered, and you died. 

We rhapsodize about your bravery, and many were brave, but you weren't.    We sing of your noble sacrificial spirit, but that spirit wasn't in you. 

Some of you were defending our country and the cause of freedom, but didn't know it or didn't admit it.    You wrongly thought it was all for nothing, or you wondered whether it was fruitless.    Some of you rightly saw that you were sent to do someone's bidding that had very little to do with freedom, ours or others'.    No matter:  whether you really were or really weren't serving for a noble cause, you didn't think you were, or didn't see it, or didn't care. 

And still you went.    You could have dodged but you served.

So, for all the un-brave, un-dedicated, un-selfless, reluctant, grudging soldiers who now lay in the earth, we who remain must remember you, un-erase you, know you, and thank you.    We owe you that.    You may never have been saluted in life by anyone who knew your heart.    Today let us, at last, salute you.