Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, I ask you what you have done to honor the sacrifice of our fallen.
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Memorial Day is coming up, and it has me reflecting on a great many things. Of course, at the top is the ultimate sacrifice our military members make when they lay their lives down in the service of our country. But also, what have we done to honor that sacrifice?
Every year, veterans remind everyone that this holiday is a somber celebration of our dead. While it’s nice to say “thank you for your service,” what they really want is for us to remember the fallen.
Somewhere around 1.1 million U.S. military personnel have died in wars and military conflicts since the American Revolution. These lives ended in service of a cause greater than themselves.
There’s this pretty viral X account, The American Cultrist, that has ramped up its patriotic postings as we build toward America’s 250th anniversary. One stopped me in my tracks. He posted photos from the 1976 Bicentennial parades. The streets were overflowing with people vying for a chance to see the marching band come through. There were hot air balloons decorated with the stars and stripes, and flag banners lined the streets.
I’ve been searching for something like this to take our girls for Memorial Day this weekend, and haven’t found anything that comes close to matching the grandeur.
Pat Buchanan wrote “Death of the West” in 2002, saying, “In half a lifetime, many Americans have seen their God dethroned, their heroes defiled, their culture polluted, their values assaulted, their country invaded, and themselves demonized as extremists and bigots for holding on to beliefs Americans have held for generations.”
I saw this quote on my timeline the other day and thought it was the perfect explanation for how the 1976 Bicentennial parade pictures made me feel. The reason I can’t find the equivalent of the parade is that we’ve allowed our culture to die.
We like to blame our elected officials for the decline, but it’s really our fault. We know our country is dying. We can see it every time we step outside our doors, and yet the elected officials responsible still receive an 80 percent approval rating.
Take Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, for example. The man has governed over the replacement of Texas residents for over 11 years. In that time, the state has become home to the largest Indian and Muslim populations in the U.S. Our communities are broken. The school systems have become leftist indoctrination camps. The Texas Way is being held together by a few of us who still believe. But for the most part, it’s on life support. And yet, he’s won every Republican gubernatorial primary since 2014.
This is happening all over the country and has been for decades.