To My Own Uncle Carroll
In Honor of All Who Served!
Major Carroll Houston Teas
Pilot / Pacific Theater
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR CORP
1941-1945
Happy Memorial Day, 2018!
Happy Memorial Day, All Fellow Americans, and also to All Those Among Us in Body or Spirit of Good Character Who Aspire to be American by Choice, because of All Our Precious Freedoms and Opportunities that are guaranteed by constitutional law as in no other place on earth!
Today is our annual Memorial Day, a day duly delegated each year to honoring those deceased members of our Armed Forces, our only American working class created exclusively and specifically to the job of defending the rest of us citizens 24/7, 365 days a year, so that we may enjoy the fruits of this wonderful country, even during those rare periods of time we are not getting along so well with each other, from the intrusion of any and all malevolent foreign or domestic forces that aim to further divide or destroy this beautifully inclusive, but never perfect culture that is our home turf.
In baseball, we’ve come a long way since Jackie Robinson did his part by breaking the big league color line for black baseball players in 1947, but we should never take for granted that the war against raw racial hatred is a job that ever will end until we are decades beyond these still dissonant times. Even then, our watchfulness for racism’s attempt to return (or stay alive) in any form must still be clearly traced, as we act to disarm it, always working hard to make sure there is no regression into any part of America again ever becoming a culture of hate. Ever.
Supporting the American Flag and the War Against Racism should always stand together. They are each woven from the same cloth of substance that this country is supposed to be all about.
Equality and Respect. One cannot exist without the other. We need to eliminate any form of racial profiling by the police or any others in authority. We also need to show respect for our flag every day, whether it’s raining outside or not. It’s up to us as a nation to find our way to the best solutions possible for these still dissonant times.
Until we do, racism shall continue to undermine respect for the flag. The undermined respect for the flag, in turn, will undermine the support we need to fight racism. And it will be to the greater loss of both qualities we need working together for the benefit of all. Equality and Respect are the keys to everything.
May God help us.
And May God Bless America! ~ And, Even Under These Trying Circumstances, Thank You Especially for Your Service, Members of the American Military Forces!
World War II was the only thing that ever stopped my Uncle Carroll from standing for Our National Anthem, but, until his death, it never stopped him from saluting the flag whenever the band played at ball games, or wherever his travels carried him.
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Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
Tags: Happy Memorial Day 2018
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