“Happy Memorial Day! Good news! We’re celebrating Memorial Day with a special ‘sale’ on top of our everyday ‘sale’. One day only … unless, of course, we extend it as we always do.”
A commercial fitting for a nation that has abandoned God and lost its soul. Such commercials represent a reprehensible travesty on a day originally dedicated to a solemn honoring of the memory of the men — yes, the men not the women for few women ever engaged in combat — who had been killed in battle, including the soldiers in grey of the Confederate States of America. How, in good conscious, could any patriotic American patronize such hucksters? How could the nation allow such a travesty? Would not any true patriot boycott permanently any retail outlet trampling on the graves of the men killed in combat? Meanwhile, kudos to President Trump for trying to resurrect the basic fabric that once held together these United States.
As this commentator has written elsewhere . . .
The Federalists clearly had intended to protect freedom of speech; freedom of political speech, that is. The extent to which they intended to protect commercial speech — especially commercial speech that violated traditional Judeo-Christian norms of decency and propriety — has provided fuel for endless debate depending upon individual points of view and assumptions.
Prior to the Furies, the Supreme Court of these United States had expanded the concept of freedom of speech to include non-verbal behaviors such as nude girls dancing atop tables for money. More telling were the incessant attacks upon Western civilization by disestablishmentarians opposing traditional American ideals and values. Waving the banner of “sensitivity”, they strove to limit freedom of political speech; thereby, adding more fuel to the conflagration engulfing a declining nation already on fire — literally and figuratively.
“The Constitution is not a suicide pact.” -Justice Robert H. Jackson (Terminiello v. Chicago, 1949)
The fundamental question is, In a democratic republic based upon written constitutional law, can the government legitimately impose any sort of moral or ethical code? Can it legitimately define itself as a free society but one free with limits?
Consider our most recent, now-retired President — a corrupt, treasonous, professional politician who weaseled his way out of serving in the military — making a speech at a military cemetery surrounded by power-hungry politicians, self-serving bureaucrats, and unctuous sycophants, most of whom never served either. Their presence makes a mockery of this solemn occasion.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” -Mark 8:36
Yes, Memorial Day now represents a nation having lost its soul. It has become an occasion for too many Americans to celebrate a three-day, joyful, fun-filled holiday by gorging on weenies and burgers; drinking alcohol to excess; and shopping at so-called sales hawked by crude clowns representing crass commercialism at its worst. No, thankfully not for all but for far too many. Levity instead of solemn contemplation. The only question is whether it’s more shameful or sad.
“An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” -Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975)
There are objective factors controlling the current, ill-fated destiny of this nation in the throes of its own self-inflicted destruction. This week of Memorial Day, as we Americans stand on the bank of the River Styx and on the brink of allowing ourselves to be led by servants of Satan across its black waters into a netherworld from which great nations rarely return, we might pause, at least for a moment, to seek a remedy for our ills. There is a better way.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” -Matthew 7:7
“commercial fitting for a nation that has abandoned God and lost its soul.”
You hit the nail on its head!
Thank you and may G-d protect you.
Your insights belong on the front page of the New York Times.