There is nothing that jars – thrills the innermost recesses of my soul like the thoughts of the Christian cross (I have been totally blind for over 50 years and cannot see such). Next to that, the American flag, the flag to which I stood at attention, so many ceremonies, so long ago.
Mark Twain said the prettiest sight in the world was the American flag on a ship in a foreign port. This world traveler has seen the flag on ships, embassies, the flag draped caskets of his friends. Perhaps the most memorable, St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, London, England. I was there with my guide – driver searching for the grave of one of my favorite poets, Francis Thompson (Love Is A Many Splendored Thing).
My guide said to me, “You will not believe what is coming down the path our way.” A man was pulling a cart on which was a casket covered with the American flag. Following behind, just two people, a Catholic priest pushing an elderly woman in a wheel chair. Earlier, we had almost stepped into an open grave and I had remarked how dangerous it was. We walked over to the burial, the “grave diggers” were already throwing dirt on the casket. I asked the priest if I could speak to the widow, he said, “She is not very cognitive but happy that you are here.” I said to her, “I am an American.” She handed to me the 48-star American flag. The priest told me that they had been married over 60 years, were in separate nursing homes, no family. I have since sold this flag along with all of the other old flags I owned but written on that flag, which covered that casket, “Battle flag January 24, 1945, the last day's Battle of the Bulge”.
Earlier in my military career I was a member of the staff of the Army Hospital, Ft. McClellan, Alabama. The hospital duty officers always hung out at the hospital BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters) .If one were needed anyplace, everyone in the hospital knew they could reach the doctor there. In case of terrible accident – catastrophe the building would empty very fast as everyone went to duty.
My first night at the hospital, new officer getting acquainted, the OB-GYN surgeon asked me if I wanted to go to the operating room and watch him make a caesarean delivery. I had never seen such and it was of interest. The second night he asked me if I wanted to go back to surgery with him and watch a procedure. Gowned, etc., I had no idea what was going on, had never seen an abortion. The patient's husband had been killed in service, she was hospitalized, a physical – psychological mess, already with several children and they decided to kill her baby before birth.
I wish I could remove the image from my mind, forceps removing from the mother's body little feet, little hands, the girl baby crushed and removed from the body of the mother. Why not deliver this baby girl who could bring so much joy to a family? Another answer, how could an OB-GYN surgeon, charismatic, bright, father of five small children at home, take this life without any remorse, to him, just a surgical procedure. I had left the area, he asked me my problem, I told him to never mention the matter to me again.
This week, a group of Japanese astronomers led by Takatoshi Shibuya (Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan) with their new telescopes, Subaru and Keck, SXDF-NB1006-2, reaching a distance of 12.91 billion light years from Earth, feel they are approaching the “dawn of the universe”. The Creator of the universe, His chief creation, man, must feel embarrassed by man's inhumanity toward mankind. Men seem intent on the destruction of one another, as well as other life, more sea life beach kills than ever in history. Not content with using robots in the killing fields of warfare, drones, aircraft, from the size of your hand to that of a small model airplane, capable of dropping bombs on the innocent, capable of giving the date of a dime laying on the ground, far above in the clouds. One crashed in Salisbury, Maryland costing tax payers $176 million.
We celebrate fathers, some good, some bad. The flag, behind which some hide who are evil but thankfully most fathers stand on the shoulders of good men. From the beginning we had Nebuchadnezzar to compare to Nehemiah, Sodom to compare with Sardis...constant conflict between good and evil, whether men or nations. Each of the Jewish tribes possessed their own standard (flag) kept outside their boundary. The father's of nations have always displayed flags of courage.
This world traveler has seen much poverty, none as bad or sad as a squatter's village in South Africa, squalor beyond words to describe. Each family was under a small tent, patch of earth. Not always, but in most cases, a father there doing the best he could with provisions and protection. On this Father's Day – Flag Day weekend we honor some who never became fathers (some women, as well as men, never are able to produce children – sterility) we profess God's love to fathers as well as those who have been willing to protect our nation's flag.
God, Give Us Men!
GOD, give us men!
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
Josiah Gilbert Holland
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