In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae,
MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Memorial Day 2005 – Henry W. Hessing
Memorial Day is the time we set aside to honor Americans who gave their lives in war to defend the essence of our country, freedom and individual rights. Before ceremonies and parades, workers install American flags along our streets. This weekend, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts around the country place small flags “where valor sleeps,” at each gravesite of our 120 beautifully landscaped and austere national cemeteries.
On Long Island, amongst the quiet trees, is Calverton where there are 146,000 graves. Engraved headstones tell us name, age, branch of service, military rank and war. If it were possible, what stories could they tell? For the families of these soldiers, Memorial Day arouses deep emotions because they know these stories. Professor Edwin A. Locke of the University of Maryland described these emotions as, “solemnity for the veterans who defended our country, sadness because so many have lost their lives and pride because they fought so well.”
Our Founding Fathers envisioned a government that existed to protect the freedom to think and act on one’s thinking. The American Revolution defined our independence and the American spirit. America became “the torch” of light to show the world’s oppressed a way to escape poverty and dictatorship, to live their own lives, where they aren’t owned by the gang, the commune or the state.
The philosophy that created our country is: we were the first to declare that government exists to serve men; men do not exist to serve government. We were the first to proclaim that all men are equal, to declare that men have individual rights – the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson at Philadelphia and George Washington at Valley Forge pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” for the moral right of an individual to live his own, independent life as he sees fit, that one’s life belongs to oneself, not to others to use as they see fit. We defined the right to liberty to mean the right to freedom of action, to use one’s own judgment and not to be forced to do what someone else demands. We defined the right to pursue individual happiness to mean that an individual may pursue his own happiness and not exist as a tool to serve the goals of others. Our “democracy” was built on the limitation of State power over the citizen and the possession of “rights” which may not be violated by the State. Personal liberty depends on the concept of the person. For the Founding Fathers the person was the “end” and the State the “means”; meaning the State exists for the person and not the person for the sake of State. The logic follows that if human beings were unable to reason or to think for themselves, there would be no autonomy or independence for a government to protect. This is the concept of American liberty and our freedom.
Mr. Andrew Bernstein, a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute wrote, “To fully appreciate the virtue of our soldiers we must remember what freedom means – that we can choose our fields of study, our own careers, our own spouses, the size of our families and our places of residence. It means we can speak out without fear regarding any issue, including government policy; choose our values, without interference from the state. Freedom is based on the inalienable right of each individual to pursue his own goals and his own personal happiness.”
Mr. Bernstein quotes two of our greatest generals who knew that freedom is sacred: George Washington said to Joseph Reed, “The spirit of freedom beats too high in us to submit to slavery.” Douglas MacArthur explained his efforts after World War II to Congress, “from the ashes left in war’s wake, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty…freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice.”
Many of us have stood in the stillness of our cemeteries, stared at field after field of white gravestones, all in perfect rows, each marked with a name and a war. We felt gratitude and respect yet were overcome by the immense claim of war on the living. Today, we honor the virtue of moral courage of those who fought, gave their blood and died in defense of America’s freedom.
In Flanders fields the
Poppies blow
Between the crosses,
Row on row.
